The Duck Commander Family (5 page)

B
UT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSEHOLD, WE WILL SERVE THE
L
ORD.

—J
OSHUA
24:15

K
orie:
“More fish, Papaw! More fish!”

My papaw Howard loved to hear me say those words. We would catch fish together almost every day, then would go straight inside and fry them up. I loved eating fish; I even ate the tails. Most important, I loved spending time with Papaw. My brother, Ryan, was always shooting squirrels with his BB gun, and I remember Papaw teaching me how to skin one of the squirrels that Ryan killed.

Other than that, I guess Phil would call my family yuppies. Living in West Monroe, Louisiana, you can’t be too much of a city girl, though. It’s a pretty small town, where most people enjoy hunting and fishing to some extent. But I did live in a subdivision and attended a private school, and the only time I remember my dad going hunting was on a business trip with some of his big clients. So I guess that qualifies us as yuppies.

Alton Howard, my papaw, was semiretired at fifty-three
years old. So while he lived in a big, beautiful house in a subdivision, he had time to teach us a thing or two about country living. Papaw grew up in Rocky Branch, Louisiana, in an environment much like the one Phil grew up in. Papaw always told us stories of feeding the hogs and getting oranges in his stocking for Christmas. His family worked hard to survive, and he learned how to live off the land. Papaw served four years in the Army Air Forces during World War II. Then Papaw came home, where he met my beautiful mamaw, Mamie Jean, in a bowling alley in West Monroe. They married and set out to make their fortune. Partnering with one of his brothers, Papaw opened a jewelry store, where I remember “working” as a young girl. I enjoyed going to the store and helping clean the glass counters and wrap the gifts at Christmastime. They had a machine that made bows, and I especially loved making them. The jewelry store was just the beginning, though. Papaw and my father, Johnny, were involved in more than twenty business ventures together, including a chain of stores called Howard Brothers Discount Stores (this is the company Kay worked for when she and the boys first came to West Monroe).

The discount stores opened their doors in 1959 as a Gibson’s franchise. This was a few years before Wal-Mart opened. The company went public in 1969 and changed its name from Gibson’s to Howard Brothers Discount Stores, which became a very successful chain, with seventy-eight stores all over the Southeast. My dad finished college and went straight to work for the family businesses. So Duck
Commander’s being a family business was nothing unusual for me. I was very familiar with the unique benefits and challenges that come with a family-run operation. My mamaw Howard loved to cook for her family, and we lived just across the pond from them so we ate at their house quite a bit. Mamaw was and still is a great woman of God. She’s always reading Bible verses to us and is living proof that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. My papaw loved her dearly and called her “Queenie.” She would set the table, and my dad and papaw would sit down to eat and talk over their latest business deals. I loved to listen in.

The discount stores were sold in 1978, but my father continued to work for the company for five years and then went on to other business adventures. He visited a Price Club store, the forerunner of Costco, on a trip to California and came back and told my papaw, “Here’s something Sam Walton will never do!” The Wal-Mart stores had grown exponentially during those years, and the last thing they wanted to do was be in competition with Sam Walton. And so my papaw and father started SuperSaver Wholesale Warehouse Club in 1984. They didn’t realize that about that same time Sam Walton was opening new stores called Sam’s Club. SuperSaver grew fast, with twenty-four stores opening in only eighteen months! Papaw and Daddy were about to take the company public when Sam Walton called with an offer. Sam bought SuperSaver from my family in 1987 and those twenty-four stores became Sam’s Clubs. So needless to say, I came from a very business-minded family! It’s what they loved to
do. For the Robertsons, the motto has always been faith, family, and ducks. But for my side of the family it’s more like Faith, Family, and Business!

I had a great upbringing. I came from strong Christian families on both sides and was blessed to always have the security of a mom and dad who loved God, loved each other, and took care of our needs. My mamaw and papaw on my mom’s side, Jo and Luther Shackelford, met in San Diego, California, where my papaw served in the marines during the Korean War. He was recruited to play basketball for the marines, and my mamaw was a cheerleader. Papaw Shack was six feet four inches, and a strong legacy of basketball players continues to this day in our family because of him. He went to college on the GI Bill and earned a master’s degree in engineering from Oklahoma State University. He and my mamaw lived in Shreveport, Louisiana, for most of my childhood, which is only about an hour and a half from West Monroe, where I grew up, and I loved going to visit them. When I was young, I called them Mamaw and Papaw Shreveport!

When I went to visit, Mamaw would have the fridge stocked with all of my favorite things, and Papaw always had a joke to tell and a hug and a kiss for me. He was the kindest man I have ever known, with a word of encouragement always on his lips. My papaw was a salesman for most of his life. Mamaw always said he could “sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo.” Mamaw was a busy stay-at-home mom with six kids. She could do absolutely anything and still can. She doesn’t look like your typical grandma. And at eighty, if
she doesn’t yet, I don’t think she ever will! She’s always stylish and up for the next adventure. She is truly a product of the Greatest Generation, with the ability to sew all her kids’ clothes and cook fantastic meals, and even, as my mom tells us, once enclosed their garage to make a game room and laid the brick all by herself! She started working with my Papaw in real estate after her kids were grown and is still working today. She’s running their real estate office and serving on the board of the Northeast Louisiana Association of Realtors, along with keeping up with her grandkids and great-grandkids.

My parents, John and Chrys Howard, met at Camp Ch-Yo-Ca (the same camp where Willie and I met) and were married a few years later when my mom was eighteen years old. They headed off to Harding University, and I was born two years later on October 24, 1973. When we go back to Searcy, Arkansas, where the Harding campus is, my dad loves to point out where I was conceived, in a trailer between a meatpacking plant and a graveyard. Awkward!

Now back to my parents’ meeting at camp. Camp Ch-Yo-Ca, which stands for CHristian YOuth CAmp, was started in 1967 by my mamaw and papaw Howard, along with several other men and women. They had a dream of having a place for kids and teens to get out of their normal environment, spend time in the woods, have fun with friends, and, most important, grow closer to God. Growing up, my mom, along with my brother, Ryan, and sister, Ashley, and I, lived out there every summer in an RV parked in front of the craft
shed. The camp was only about ten minutes from our house, but it is set in the middle of one hundred acres, and when we were there, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. My dad would come in and out because he still had to work, of course. He was busy growing the family business.

Some of my favorite memories are of being at camp. We spent the entire summer outdoors. There were no televisions, just Ping-Pong tables, swings, a lake for fishing and canoeing, and a giant swimming pool. Since we were the “camp kids,” we were there for every session, and we loved it. We roamed free and played all day. We would sneak into the kitchen and go into the walk-in refrigerator to cool off. It’s hot in Louisiana in the summertime! I was kind of shy as a child, so one summer when I was about nine, everybody’s favorite camp director, Howard Karbo, decided I was not getting near enough attention. He started the “Korie Howard Fan Club.” This fan club didn’t exactly do anything, and I think there were only about two members. While I was a little embarrassed by the attention, what girl wouldn’t be flattered to have her own fan club?

My mom taught the crafts and later went on to be a director at the camp, and still is today. My mom has more energy than any woman I know. She works so hard for those kids. She has a servant spirit like none other. She has worked most of her life as a volunteer in some capacity, whether at the camp or at the Christian school that we attended. She started a program at our school for kids with learning difficulties and worked there every day for twelve years, never taking a paycheck.

By that time, my family had launched a publishing company called Howard Publishing, which was later sold to Simon & Schuster, and she was needed there. She eventually went on to work as a senior editor and creative director for the company. Mom was the kind of mother who loved to make things fun for everybody. She was the one who planned the class parties, and the youth group at our church always hung out at my family’s house. They still do to this day. Mom brought all of that fun to the publishing company, having monthly lunches to honor the employees and a month of activities at Christmastime, including Pancake and Pajama Day. (I’ve thought of doing that at Duck Commander, but I’m not sure if I could talk the guys into coming to work in their PJs. Actually, the thought of that is a little scary!) Her work in this area helped the company win the “Best Christian Workplace in America” award for five years in a row!

Mom continues to make life fun for her grandkids. They call her Two-Mama and call my dad Two-Papa, and we couldn’t live without them! We built a house next door to my parents about five years ago, and our kids just go back and forth. It’s been an extra blessing while we’re filming the show. Life’s busy, and I never feel guilty about leaving my kids with Two-Mama while I film or work. Two-Mama is always there, and I know they’re in great hands!

Some of my other favorite memories of growing up are of us traveling as a family. I think traveling is a great gift to be able to give your kids in order to expose them to different cultures and people around the world. My dad always took
time off to take us on awesome vacations. We went snow skiing every winter and to the beach every summer. We were blessed to be able to go incredible places like China, Austria, and Germany, and we even went to two Olympic Games. Not all of the places we traveled were that exotic though. Every year, we went with Mamaw and Papaw Howard on what we called “Grandkids’ Vacation.” My papaw Howard had an RV, so this was usually a road trip to Branson, Missouri. One year the RV broke down right in front of a mall. Papaw said that was his most expensive breakdown ever. We shopped the whole time we waited for the RV to get fixed!

Like I said, Dad was a hard worker. He didn’t golf, hunt, or have any other hobbies besides work and family. He never missed any of our sporting events, and nowadays, he never misses one of the grandkids’ activities. He may be in the stands reading over a contract, but he is there. He’s a great Two-Papa. One time our daughter, Bella, was telling me how Two-Papa’s favorite thing to do is to take them anywhere they want to go. All the grandkids know that if they want something, ask Two-Papa. Every time they ask him to take them on a snow cone run, he stops whatever he’s doing and says, “I was waiting for you to ask me that!” And they hop in his T-Bird and go get snow cones. The best thing about it is that he not only takes them, but he makes them feel like that’s exactly what he wanted to do.

After Dad sold Howard Publishing to Simon & Schuster, he continued as the president of the company for three years. Then after he and Mom took some time off to travel,
Daddy came to work for us at Duck Commander, working with budgets and contracts. You know we like to keep it all in the family! He is an invaluable asset with all of his business knowledge and experience. Plus, Dad’s a detail person, while Willie is more of a big-picture guy. Like everything else at Duck Commander, it seems that when Dad came on board, God provided us with what we needed most, and He continues to do it over and over again.

Yep, there are a lot of differences between our two families. Unlike Kay, Mom is not a cook. She actually doesn’t even care about food. Never has. I would say Mom pretty much just eats to live rather than lives to eat like the Robertson family. Dad had colon cancer in 2000, and my parents became pescetarians after that, which means they eat only fruit, veggies, and things that swim. They actually went to a “camp” to learn how to eat vegetarian. We’ve made fun of them for years for going to “veggie camp,” but I have actually tried to get Willie to go there with me sometime. I don’t want to give up meat, but it wouldn’t hurt to get more veggies in our diet. I doubt I’ll ever get him to set foot there, but he did actually get into juicing recently. We are using my parents’ juicer until we make sure it sticks. He’s loving it; he says it’s fun creating new juicing “recipes,” and they actually don’t taste that bad! So while my mom is no Miss Kay in the kitchen, there are things we can learn from both sides of the family in regards to food.

It’s pretty plain to see the differences in our families, but what you may not realize is that they are alike in the most critical way—our faith. Some of the most important lessons my
parents taught me were those of generosity and service. I really can’t remember a time when we didn’t have someone living in our home who needed a place to stay—from struggling single moms with kids to entire families that needed somewhere to live while they got back on their feet. I saw this same trait in the Robertson family, and I loved it. They may not have had as much as we did growing up, but the generosity of spirit and hospitality was there just the same. Their home was always open, and there was always an extra spot at the dinner table for whoever needed a helping hand or just someone to talk to. As it says in Psalm 41:1–2: “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them—they are counted among the blessed in the land—He does not give them over to the desire of their foes.”