The Duck Commander Family Read Online Free PDF Page A

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 DuckCommander’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 todo. 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