The Duck Commander Family

by Robertson, Willie

  WILLIE WAS DEFINITELY MY FIRST CRUSH.

  When I was in the fifth grade, Ray Melton, the preacher at our church, tried to recruit Phil to start coming to White’s Ferry Road. Ray’s daughter, Rachel, and I were best friends, and they were going to Phil’s house for dinner one night. They invited me to go along. I still remembered Willie from camp, so needless to say, I was just dying to go. I begged my parents to let me go with them. They said yes! I even remember what I wore to Willie’s house—a black top with fluorescent green earrings. Don’t judge . . . it was the eighties.

  When Rachel and I got to the Robertsons’ house, the first thing Phil said to us was: “Have you met my boys, Jason Silas and Willie Jess? They’ll make good husbands someday. They’re good hunters and fishermen.” I was so nervous. I could not believe this was happening. The other thing I remember about walking in their home was that Phil and Kay had a sign on their door that said, “Honeymoon in progress.” Phil and Kay have never been shy about their honeymooning . . . another thing that shocked me about their family.

  Once we had eaten, Willie took us back to his room, which was actually the laundry room. He made us laugh the whole time. He would stick his thumb in his mouth and pretend that he was blowing up his muscles. He did acupressure tricks and showed us our pressure points. This was all very impressive to a couple of fifth-grade girls.

  After a while, I decided I was going to try to really impress Korie. I started punching the tiles on the ceiling of the laundry room, which was a trick one of my buddies taught me. I’d rear back and just punch my fist through the ceiling and busted tile would fall over onto the floor. I’m sure she was really impressed.

  Korie: After leaving Willie’s house, I didn’t see him for another two years. In the seventh grade, Phil and Kay finally decided to move the family to our church. Willie called me on the telephone while I was babysitting some of my cousins. We didn’t have cell phones at the time, but he had called my house and my mom gave him the number to my aunt’s house. He told me they were going to start coming to our church. I was so excited. Willie asked me where I was going to go to college, and I told him I was going to Harding University. Willie thought I said Harvard and told Phil I was going to an Ivy League school. Phil told him: “That’s big-time, son.”

  When the Robertson boys came to our church, everyone was excited because Jase and Willie were definitely the cool new guys. They ended up having a huge influence in our youth group, baptizing nearly a hundred teenagers over the next couple of years. It was incredible. There was tremendous growth in our youth group after they joined our church. Of course, all the girls liked Willie and thought he was cute. I think he dated about every girl in the youth group at one time or another.

  OF COURSE, ALL THE GIRLS LIKED WILLIE AND THOUGHT HE WAS CUTE.

  One time Willie was dating one of my friends and we were riding on the bus during one of our youth trips, and Willie’s girlfriend gave him money to buy her a drink at a gas station. He came back on the bus with a pack of baseball cards and didn’t even buy his girlfriend a drink. I remember it made me so mad. I told my friend, “You should break up with him right now.” We all thought he was the worst boyfriend ever for doing that!

  I’ll never forget the first time Willie asked me out. We liked each other off and on through middle school and high school, but we didn’t attend the same schools so we never really dated. He was attending West Monroe High School, and I was going to Ouachita Christian School, which is where Phil used to teach. When I was in the eleventh grade (Willie was a year older), he sent one of his friends, Jimmy Jenkins, to ask me out for him. Willie was pretty cocky and all the girls in the youth group were dying to go out with him. But I remembered how he treated my friend, so I told him no. It was a big blow for him, but he needed to be knocked down a few notches. We both continued dating other people over the next year but then were both single around Christmastime during my senior year in 1990.

  Willie and I saw each other at the mall a few weeks after Christmas, and it was just one of those moments. Willie was attending seminary school at White’s Ferry Road Church and was living with six guys in a small house in town. A couple of days after we saw each other in the mall, Willie walked into his house and there was a chair turned around facing the front door. It had a yellow piece of paper taped to it. It was a message for him, telling him that I had called. I knew that since I had rejected him the last time he asked me out, I would have to be the one to break the ice again. He called me the next day and we went to lunch at Bonanza. It didn’t take long before we started dating each other pretty seriously, in January 1991.

  Like I said, Willie was living with six other guys in town, but even then, he wasn’t exactly living in the house. There was a small storage building out back, which he turned into his own room. He painted all the furniture black and white, and Granny made him a quilt to put on his bed. He had a TV and a window unit for air-conditioning, which he bought with his own money. It was like his little bachelor pad and the first place he could really call his own. Willie was working for my uncle Mac, who owned a cabinet-building shop. Willie worked for Mac throughout high school, cleaning up the shop and doing some woodwork. Mac helped Willie buy his first car, which was a 1980 Ford Mustang. It was bright orange and had white leather seats, which were all torn up, but it got him where he was going.

  I used to love going to Willie’s little house before school. He would cook me these elaborate omelets and even put a garnish on the top of them. Up till that time, I was never one for waking up early, and I’m still not, for that matter. But during our dating days, I didn’t mind getting up early if it meant I got to spend a little more time with Willie. Plus, his cooking really impressed me. Willie’s actually very romantic, which a lot of people might not realize. He’s written me a ton of love notes and even poems, and he likes to cook for me. Thankfully after twenty years of marriage those things haven’t changed.

  WILLIE’S ACTUALLY VERY ROMANTIC. HE’S WRITTEN ME A TON OF LOVE NOTES AND EVEN POEMS.

  Willie and I dated for about eight months, and then I was getting ready to leave for school at Harding University. Willie was still attending seminary school, and I wanted him to go to Harding University with me. But Willie said he wasn’t leaving West Monroe. He wanted me to stay in West Monroe with him. We broke up before I left for school in August, and I’m sure he thought I’d find someone else at college, because that’s what typically happens when you leave home. Willie called me one night in September 1991 after I had been gone a few weeks and said, “Let’s get back together.” I knew I loved him, but I told him I wasn’t sure about it. He was trying to change my life, and it was really his way or no way. I just didn’t know what to do.

  “Let me think about it,” I said. “I’ll call you back tomorrow.”

  I was convinced she’d found someone else. I was telling all my buddies that it was over between us, and I was gathering other girls’ phone numbers to prepare myself to move on. I just knew it was over, and I wasn’t waiting to hear it from her the next day. I was convinced she wanted to end our relationship but couldn’t muster the courage to tell me. Korie called me the next day, and I was ready to tell her that I didn’t want to get back together anymore and that our relationship was over. I was certainly going to end it before she ended it. I just knew she already had a new boyfriend at Harding.

  “I’ve got something I want to tell you,” Korie told me.

  “What do you want to say?” I asked her, deciding I’d better hear her out first.

  “Let’s get back together,” she said.

  My ears started buzzing. I threw all the girls’ phone numbers in the trash can. About a month later, Korie and I decided we were going to get married.

  Korie: I had turned eighteen in October 1991, so legally I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. But I knew I had to call my parents, Johnny and Chrys, to get their permission. We had had some discussions about my getting married that summer that had not gone so well, so I
knew they were not going to be excited about it. I mustered up the courage to make the phone call.

  “Look, I’m legal, so I’m just going to say it,” I told them. “I’m getting married, and you’re going to have to be behind me or not.”

  Of course, my parents told me it was the worst idea ever, and they were naturally worried that I was going to leave school and come home. They asked me to at least wait until I’d finished college. I hung up the phone and called Willie immediately.

  “I just told them and it didn’t go so well,” I blurted out.

  “They’ve already called me and they’re on their way over here,” he said.

  I was trying to save money, so I was living with my brother Alan and Alan’s wife Lisa. Korie’s parents came to the house to see me, and I sat on the couch with Johnny and Chrys. It was not pretty. The argument was so loud that Alan came out of his room. He looked at us and asked, “What in the world is going on?” Johnny was making all of his arguments, and I was acting like a little punk, twisting his words to put them in my favor, which only made him madder and madder.

  Johnny told me that according to studies he’d read, 50 percent of all marriages between young people ended in divorce. He had the articles with him to support his arguments.

  “So you’re calling that right now?” I asked him. “In all your wisdom, you know we’re going to get divorced?”

  “I’m not saying that,” Johnny told me.

  “You just said it,” I responded. “You just said half end in divorce. Well, what if we’re the good half?”

  Then Johnny went on to say that if we got married, he didn’t want me coming to him for advice. But then later on in the conversation, he told me I could ask him about anything. He was completely irrational, and I, of course, had to point that out to him.

  “You just said I couldn’t ask you for advice,” I told him.

  He was so mad, I thought he was going to leap off the couch and hit me. Before they left, Johnny looked at me and asked me one last question.

  “What’s your plan?” he asked.

  “What’s my plan?” I said to him.

  HE WAS SO MAD, I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO LEAP OFF THE COUCH AND HIT ME.

  “What exactly is your plan?” he said. “Where are you going to work? Where are you going to live?”

  “Well, I reckon I’ll just buy a trailer and put it on the back property at Phil’s house,” I told him.

  That threw Johnny over the top. He and Chrys stormed out of Alan and Lisa’s house, and I was convinced there was no way they were going to give us their blessing to get married. I called Korie to tell her how the meeting went.

  “It went terrible,” I told her. “We were yelling at each other. It was pretty ugly.”

  Then Korie had to hang up because her parents were calling her phone. She called me back a few minutes later.

  Much to my surprise, her parents told her, “Okay, if you’re determined to do this, we’re going to support you.”

  Johnny didn’t say much to me for the next few months, during the planning of the wedding, and I knew Korie’s parents still didn’t like the idea of her getting married so young. I told Phil that Korie’s parents didn’t want us getting married and asked him what I should do.

  “Here’s what I’d do,” Phil said, while sitting back in his recliner. “I’d call them up and say, ‘Y’all missed that. The wedding was last week when we went to the justice of the peace and got married. Y’all missed the whole thing.’ ”

  AS SOON AS MY PARENTS DECIDED TO SUPPORT US, THAT WAS IT. THEY WERE COMPLETELY BEHIND US AND WANTED TO MAKE SURE WILLIE AND I WOULD BE HAPPY.

  Korie: I had never heard my dad yell like he did that night at Willie before that time, nor have I heard it since, but you know daddies and their daughters. I think Willie understands this a little more after having daughters of his own. Thinking back, it makes me laugh to imagine Willie and my dad in that room squaring off. My daddy has since said he didn’t have a problem with Willie’s marrying me, it just scared him for me to do it at only eighteen. Which was the same age my mom was when they got married, as I kindly pointed out. I had a scholarship to Harding University, which is where both my parents went to school, and that was kind of the plan for my life—to graduate from Harding University and then get married and raise a family. My parents were worried I was going to get married, quit school, and start having babies. But as soon as they decided to support us, that was it. They were completely behind us and wanted to make sure Willie and I would be happy. They never said another word about not wanting me to get married so young. Willie and my father rode together to the church before our wedding, and Daddy told him he would never say another word about it, and he hasn’t.

  We had the biggest, most beautiful wedding on January 11, 1992. It was like a winter wonderland, complete with ice sculptures and white trees. There were probably about eight hundred people at our wedding, and it was a big mix of both of our families. Phil wore corduroy pants and a button-down shirt—he refused to wear a suit or tuxedo—but I didn’t care. It was a wonderful wedding. My parents took us to Hawaii the next summer, which was kind of like our honeymoon because we didn’t have a chance to take one after we got married.

  The day after Willie and I were married, we took another big step in our lives—we moved to Searcy, Arkansas, where Willie started classes with me at Harding University.

  CRAWFISH OMELETS

  I love crawfish! I have cooked them every way you can. If you don’t live someplace where you can catch crawfish in the wild, you can usually get them in the freezer section of the grocery store. If you can’t find them there, consider buying them online and having them shipped to you. Crawfish are so delicious, I promise, it will be worth it!

  4 large egg whites

  2 large eggs

  1/4 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce

  1 tablespoon water

  1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped

  1/4 cup cooked crawfish tail meat, chopped

  1 tablespoon Phil Robertson’s Cajun Style Seasoning

  1 teaspoon sour cream

  2 tablespoons butter

  1/4 cup ham, chopped

  1/3 cup mushrooms, sliced

  2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese

  1. Combine egg whites, eggs, hot sauce, water, and chives in a small bowl and whisk for 2 minutes.

  2. Combine crawfish, Cajun Style Seasoning, and sour cream in a small bowl.

  3. In a small skillet melt butter; add ham and mushrooms. Sauté for 3 minutes.

  4. Pour egg mixture into skillet. Let it set slightly and cook for 3 minutes.

  5. Flip omelet and add crawfish mix onto half of the omelet and cook for 2 minutes.

  6. Top with cheddar and cook long enough to melt cheese.

  8

  CHICKEN STRIPS

  BY WISDOM A HOUSE IS BUILT, AND THROUGH UNDERSTANDING IT IS ESTABLISHED; THROUGH KNOWLEDGE ITS ROOMS ARE FILLED WITH RARE AND BEAUTIFUL TREASURES.

  —PROVERBS 24:3–4

  Korie: Willie and I lived in an apartment at Harding University right after we were married. It was just a little one-bedroom apartment, but we loved it. We had the best time decorating it with all of our wedding gifts. After living in the apartment for a semester, we decided that we were wasting money by paying rent every month. We really thought we should buy a house, so we started to look around. Of course, Willie and I were both still taking classes, so we didn’t have the money to buy a house by ourselves. Fortunately, my father agreed to help us with the down payment and cosigned the loan for a house. He helped us get our first house, which really meant a lot to us.

  We ended up finding a little starter home in Searcy that was still being built, so we were able to pick out the flooring, carpet, and paint color for the walls. The house was only about nine hundred square feet, but we were thrilled to own our first home. We paid about $47,500 for the house and sold it for $60,000 when we moved back to Monroe, so it ended up being a pretty good i
nvestment. We had a few other married friends in college, and they would come to our house on the weekends because we were the only ones who owned a house. Willie would cook for everybody, and it was a lot of fun.

  I was a year ahead of Willie in college, and I was able to concentrate on school while he worked and took classes. Willie had lots of jobs while we were in college, including working at a bowling alley for a while. If you know Willie, whenever he gets into something, he doesn’t ever just do it halfway. He immediately thinks he’s going to become a professional at it. So for a while, he wanted to be a professional bowler. Then, after college, he took up golf and was convinced for a while he was going to be a professional golfer.

  After I started playing golf pretty regularly, I paid for a lesson from an instructor. The guy had been a professional golfer and even won the Arkansas Open.

  “I’m thinking about being a pro golfer,” I told him.

  He just looked at me and said, “No.”

  The guy hadn’t even seen me swing yet and he was already telling me no.

  “You haven’t even seen me swing,” I told him.

  “You ain’t got it,” he said.

  Eventually, I was able to get my handicap down to four, but that was about as close as I ever got to the PGA Tour.

  Korie: Willie and I worked together for a little while as telemarketers, and it was the worst job ever. We were in this crowded room with a lot of other people on phones, making cold calls to raise money for leukemia research. At the end of every night, they would show you how much money you had raised. Willie would always raise a ton of money, but I could never get anyone to donate. I was stuck with calling people in New York, while Willie was calling people in Alabama. Nothing against Northerners, but I don’t think they are as nice to telemarketers as people in the South. Either that or Willie was just better at it than I was! I think we had that job for about two weeks. It was so horrible.