Wallace Malone Jr., Dothan Native Who Helped Build SouthTrust Into a Banking Giant, Dies at 90

DOTHAN, Ala. — Wallace Malone Jr., the Dothan native who helped found SouthTrust Corp. and led it to become one of the largest banking companies in the United States, died Oct. 25. He was 90.

Malone spent more than three decades with SouthTrust, the Birmingham-based bank holding company he helped establish in 1972, and served as its president, chairman and chief executive officer. By the time SouthTrust merged with Wachovia in 2004, it had grown to more than $53 billion in assets, more than 700 banking locations in nine states and about 12,500 employees.

A Wiregrass upbringing in a banking family

Malone was born in Dothan and grew up on his family’s farm, following two generations of his family who had worked in banking. He graduated from Dothan High School and went on to earn degrees from the University of Alabama and from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, one of the nation’s best-known business schools.

In 1959, he joined First National Bank of Dothan, beginning a career in the industry that would span nearly half a century.

His standing in the banking world grew quickly. In 1971, while leading the family bank, Malone was appointed to the board of directors of the Birmingham branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The Federal Reserve’s regional banks and their branches rely on boards of directors drawn from banking, business and community life to provide insight into economic conditions in their regions, and a seat on such a board is a mark of standing within a state’s financial community.

Building SouthTrust

In 1972, a year after his Federal Reserve appointment, Malone helped establish the bank holding company that became SouthTrust Corp. It would be his professional home for more than 30 years.

Bank holding companies are corporations that own one or more banks. In the decades after SouthTrust’s founding, changes in state and federal banking law gradually allowed such companies to expand across county and then state lines, opening the door for regional banks to grow through acquisitions. Banks headquartered in Birmingham were among the most active players in that consolidation across the Southeast.

Two milestones shaped that era. In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld regional interstate banking compacts that let states open their doors to banks from neighboring states, a ruling that encouraged the rise of large Southeastern “superregional” banks. Then, in 1994, Congress passed the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, which allowed bank holding companies to acquire banks in any state and eventually to operate branches across state lines. Those changes created the conditions for a company like SouthTrust to expand far beyond Alabama.

Under Malone’s leadership as president, chairman and CEO, SouthTrust became one of the nation’s largest public companies. At its peak, the company had:

• More than $53 billion in assets
• More than 700 banking locations across nine states
• About 12,500 employees

By 2004, SouthTrust ranked among the 20 largest bank holding companies in the country.

The Wachovia merger and Birmingham’s banking shake-up

That year, SouthTrust merged with Wachovia, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based banking company, ending SouthTrust’s run as an independent Alabama institution and bringing its branches under the Wachovia name.

The deal set off a wave of mergers that completely remade Birmingham’s banking landscape. In the years that followed, AmSouth combined with Regions Bank in 2006, and Compass Bancshares was acquired by Spain’s BBVA in 2007. Within a few years, Birmingham, which had been home to several large independent regional banks, was left with Regions as its largest locally headquartered bank.

Wachovia itself was acquired by Wells Fargo during the 2008 financial crisis, and many former SouthTrust branches across the Southeast now operate under the Wells Fargo name.

A career at a glance

• Born: Dothan; raised on his family’s farm
• Education: Dothan High School; University of Alabama; Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
• 1959: Joined First National Bank of Dothan
• 1971: Appointed to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Birmingham branch
• 1972: Helped establish the bank holding company that became SouthTrust Corp.
• Leadership: Served as SouthTrust’s president, chairman and CEO
• 2004: SouthTrust, then among the 20 largest U.S. bank holding companies, merged with Wachovia
• Died: Oct. 25, 2026, at age 90

Survivors and services

Wallace Davis Malone Jr. is survived by his beloved wife, Ocllo Smith Malone, and six children.

A memorial service was set for noon Wednesday at First Baptist Church of Dothan. The family planned a private burial at Dothan City Cemetery.

For the Wiregrass, Malone’s life traced a path from a family farm and a hometown bank to the top of one of the largest banking companies in the nation, a career that began at First National Bank of Dothan and helped shape the modern banking industry in Alabama and across the South.