The Women of Duck Commander: Surprising Insights from the Women Behind the Beards About What Makes This Family Work Hardcover – April 1, 2014

Kay Robertson is the revered matriarch of the Robertson family and star of A&E®’s Duck Dynasty®. For almost five decades, she’s been keeping Phil and her boys from spending too much time in the woods by bringing them back to civilization with a home cooked meal. Kay believes her cooking talents are a gift she must share, so she often ends up feeding all of the family and most of the neighborhood.

Lisa Robertson is the wife of Alan Robertson and worked with him at the church in several different ministries before joining him back at Duck Commander.

Korie Robertson is a art education major living in West Monroe, Louisiana. She and her husband star on A&E®’s hit show Duck Dynasty® and own and operate Duck Commander, a family operated business that creates products for duck hunters including duck calls, clothes, and videos. They also own and operate Buck Commander that creates product for deer hunters. Korie is also involved in her local church teaching Bible classes to children and working in the church's summer camp program. She has four children plus one daughter who came as an exchange student from Taiwan, but never returned home.

Beth Clark is a writer and publishing consultant and runs a business called Thinkspot Communications in  Franklin, TN.

The Women of Duck Commander

1

INTRODUCTION

A Message from the Wives

All of us wives agree that being a Robertson is a privilege and a joy. We are a happy family; we love God, and we love each other. We help and support one another, and we each have a passion to see the others succeed. We work together, play together, pray together, and laugh together.

When people see us around the table at the end of each Duck Dynasty episode, they get a good glimpse into who we are because they can tell we are people of faith. But they do not get a complete picture of what makes our family work, and that is one reason we wrote this book.

We all came into the Robertson family the same way: we fell in love with a Robertson man and believed we could build a good life with him, a life based on faith and family. Of course, we also knew we might spend a good bit of time apart from him during duck season! We all value different aspects of the family and appreciate being part of this remarkable group for different reasons, but we all agree that our family is amazing and wonderful.

Miss Kay: I LOVED THEM BEFORE I KNEW THEM

For as long as I can remember, all I really wanted to do with my life was be the best wife and mother I could possibly be. As my boys began to grow up, I realized I also wanted to be the best mother-in-law I could be. Long before the boys met the women they eventually married, I began to pray for those girls. I prayed for them for years! I asked the Lord to give the boys godly wives who would love Him first and love them second. I don’t believe any of my daughters-in-law ended up in the family by happenstance; God sent each one and each one is perfect for the Robertson man she married.

I believe the two most important decisions and vows we make are: first, to make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives, and second, to choose godly mates and make lifelong commitments to them. I always knew the wives my sons chose would determine how their faith would grow and develop, and I prayed they would marry women who would help and encourage them spiritually. I am happy and thankful to say God has answered those prayers.

Before my boys started dating, I made up my mind that I would love their wives. I never was one of those women who thought no young lady could be good enough for my son, and I never wanted to be a mother-in-law who competed with a daughter-in-law. I always had a heart to be kind and loving to whomever my sons chose, to be supportive of them and to embrace each one like my own daughter.

Lisa, Missy, Korie, and Jessica all know they can come to me for anything. If they have a fuss with their husbands, they know I will not automatically side with my boys. I will judge a situation according to what is right and wrong, based on what God says in His Word. I am not the kind of person who defends bad behavior just because one of my sons does it. If someone does something wrong, even if it’s one of the boys, I will call it what it is!

I am glad to have such close relationships with my daughters-in-law and to be part of a great family of faith with them. Each one has a different personality and different ways of doing things. But each one is special to me and I love them all dearly!

Jessica: LET’S GET ONE THING STRAIGHT

Somehow, because of Duck Dynasty, people often brand us Robertson wives as “gold diggers.” That might be offensive to us if we were thin-skinned or if it were true. But it is not. In fact, it’s so not true that we always get a good laugh when we hear the latest rumor about how we married our husbands because of their fortunes. People know Miss Kay didn’t marry Phil for his money, and they don’t necessarily see Lisa as a gold digger because they know Alan worked for years as a pastor before joining Duck Commander. But Korie, Missy, and me—people seem to think we plotted and schemed to capture wealthy, long-haired hunters, determined to marry them for their riches. Let me set the record straight.

When Missy married Jase, hardly anyone outside the hunting world had ever heard of him. Missy worked full-time in an administrative role at a local medical clinic to help support the two of them. She never dreamed he would one day become duck call royalty!

Korie and Willie married while they were in college and they laugh now about having to go to a friend’s house to do their laundry. They were on such a tight budget that their favorite mealtime splurge was chicken strips and macaroni and cheese out of a box. Willie has always been an industrious person and a hard worker. All of his life, he has been happy to pick up odd jobs for extra money, but in the early years of his and Korie’s marriage, they were both in college and money was tight. When their children were young, Korie worked in a paid position as children’s minister at our church. She also used her skills as a fine artist to paint detailed pictures on duck calls and sold them at hunting shows.

When I married Jep and for several years afterward, I had numerous jobs, including making hand-sewn heirloom dresses and smocked children’s clothes to sell to boutiques, working as a Realtor, and being a sales representative for a clothing company. Though Jep has always been the head of our home and the leader of our family, I have always tried to contribute financially as best I could. When we first got married, several years before Duck Dynasty started, we lived in a little trailer and could barely make ends meet. We just wanted to be able to pay our bills, buy groceries, and put gas in our cars.

I can say with complete confidence that each one of us wives married her husband because she loved and respected him; we knew they were men we could honor and trust. All of us value and appreciate these men because of who they are on the inside, not because they are now TV stars. We all married them when they had very little, and we were happy. We struggled financially, just as many other couples do—and we were happy. Now God has blessed us with more resources than we have ever had, and we’re still happy. But I can assure you that all of us would rather have strong, solid marriages with godly men than have all the riches this world could offer. And you can take that to the bank!