This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Spring is starting at the Home Depot and bringing you everyday low prices so you can wake up your yard this season. Shape up your lawn with top-brand outdoor power tools like Ryobi 40-volt mowers that have up to 50 minutes of runtime. Bring in a splash of color with spring blooms and fresh plants from the Home Depot Garden Center.
Then refresh your garden beds and keep them clear of weeds with Earth Grow mulch. Five bags for $10 to make your yard feel like new. Start your spring with low prices now through April 2nd, only at the Home Depot. Exclusions apply. See home depot.com/slash pricematch for details.
Shop now. The countdown is on for the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light. Catch all seven rounds three days live from Pittsburgh, April 23rd through 25th. Watch every pick live on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus.
It all starts Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Visit NFL.com slash draft for more information. Subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.nfL.com for terms.
We've been duped, hoodwinked, conned for 50 years. The lawn care industry sold us toxins in a bag and made our yards more toxic than a bad relationship. Sunday helps you ditch the chemicals and feed your lawn the good stuff: soybean proteins, iron, seaweed, molasses, ingredients that get your soil giggling like an overserved mom at the block party. Sunday uses clean ingredients in real science for thicker, greener grass. Order today and get your custom Sunday yard plan for the season ahead.
Sunday for a smarter, healthier yard. GetSunday.com. You know the fastest way to ruin a great adventure? Getting dehydrated. For real.
That's why you always gotta plan ahead with some Liquid IV hydration multiplier. Veteran move. You're basically your own hydration coach at that point. Just one stick and 16 ounces of water hydrates you faster than water alone. Boom.
Back in the game. Hydration multiplier powered by Liquid IV HydroScience, which is fancy talk for a smart science-backed mix of electrolytes and essential vitamins doing the dirty work to keep you going strong. Go to liquidiv.com and use the code NutHouse for 20% off your first purchase. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Whether you're a die-hard Cosmic Brownie fan, or a lover of zebra cakes, nutty buddies, stark punch, or the annual Christmas tree cakes, Little Debbie is a brand you've probably seen time and again on almost every grocery store shelf in America.
Here to tell the story of Little Debbie is Simon Whistler from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain Food Show podcast. Let's take a listen. No, no, no. It was 1933 and the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression. Nearly a quarter of the nation was unemployed and breadlines went on for blocks.
In short, many were desperate, including O.D. and Ruth McKee, who had lost most of their money due to a bank failure. What the couple did still have, however, was a 1928 Whippet car. According to McKee Food's official history, this is when Odie started selling five cents Virginia Dare cakes made by Becker's Bakery out of the back of said vehicle. Um By the next year, business was good enough that they were able to purchase a Chattanooga, Tennessee bakery, Jack's Cookie Company.
In what was a unique arrangement for the time, Ruth became a full managing partner in the business with her husband. While Odie traveled the state making sales and coming up with some innovative ways to produce new product, she baked, managed the office, and took charge of the few employees that they had. They were, as the company's official history put it, ideal business partners because her cautious, conservative nature was the perfect complement to his risk-taking, adventuresome spirit.
Okay. Years later, Jack McKee would explain that his parents had a unique opportunity during the Great Depression and they took a risk. A few months later, the vet seemed to be paying off with the bakery moving to a larger location down the street. But all wasn't perfect. In 1934, they took on Ruth's father, Simon King, as a partner.
It's not clear why they did it. Perhaps they needed an infusion of capital, or maybe they trusted King's business instincts. Either way, it doesn't appear to have been a match made in cake heaven. In 1936, over a business disagreement, the company split, with the couple selling their share and moving to Charlotte, North Carolina to found a new bakery, while King took over the Tennessee shop, which he renamed King's Bakery. McKee's official history leaves a giant gap between 1936 and 1952.
However, it seems that each bakery operated with moderate success, though with little known about them other than that it was during this period that Odie invented what is known today as the company's oldest continuously sold product, the oatmeal cream pie. Oatmeal Cream Pie, the original OCP. It first hit the shelves in 1960, see? Two oatmeal cookies layered with cream.
So unwrap a smile and taste the dream. Wanna guess how many we make? It sure is a lot, because today we bake. By the mid-20th century, Odie and his wife decided to sell their bakery and reportedly mulled over retiring, but at the request of Ruth's brother Cecil, who at this point was running King's Bakery, returned to help out managing it. Rather than run someone else's company for them not long after, Odie and Ruth decided to buy the bakery back and rename it McKee Baking Company.
The company quickly flourished under their management, which included the then innovative idea to sell their product in family packs, individually wrapped baked goods, which were sold as a package deal. Specifically, in the late 1950s, McKee Foods began producing family packs of 12 individually wrapped cakes in one unit. Thanks to essentially selling them in bulk to customers, it allowed the company to drop the price per unit slightly while enjoying a significant boost in product sales at the same time. According to Jack McKee, one of the couple's sons, most other snack companies didn't begin packaging items this way for another decade or two. Yeah.
This all brings us to how a straw hat clad smiling girl named Debbie ended up on the front of the boxes of mini treats. There are slightly conflicting stories on how Odie came up with the idea to use Little Debbie, but the general tale goes that a packaging salesman, Bob Mosher, told Odie that the McKee name was boring and that he needed something better to juice sales. Casting out, Odie supposedly noticed the picture of his granddaughter, Debbie, daughter of his son Ellsworth, and daughter-in-law Sharon McKee on his desk, and a light bulb went off in his head. Still wanting to use a family name, Odie decided on naming the company's new line after Debbie and to use the picture on his desk of her in a straw hat as a logo. Whether that's exactly how he came up with the idea or not, we do know definitively that he had said picture in his office and that after inspiration struck, he didn't tell Debbie's parents before going through with the final printing.
Not long after, famed pin-up artist Pearl Frushman used the picture of Odie's desk to create a coloured rendition of the little girl that still graces the boxes to this day. you McKee Foods is still family owned by second and third generation McKees. At our family bakeries, it takes a big, talented team to bake all of these snacks. My grandfather, O.D. McKee, believed in innovation and automation.
He was the Henry Ford of Snackcakes. While not an engineer by trade, he spent countless hours inventing ways to make the lines run more efficiently. My dad, Jack McKee, joined the company as an engineer in the 60s. I'd followed in his footsteps and became an engineer too. Today that innovative philosophy continues and we're doing things that granddad would have never imagined.
I've been working at the Kifus or the Bakery as we like to call it since I was 16 and done basically a lot of different jobs around the company. I love what we do. I mean selling little Debbie's, selling Sunbelt Bakery, what could be more fun? We have about 6,000 employees nationwide and here in the Chattanooga area we've got about 3,500 employees and we just want to treat our employees like family. As for Little Debbie Debbie McKee Fowler, she's now all grown up and is the current executive vice president of the company and runs the Little Debbie brands.
As a founder of the Little Debbie Bakery, Ruth McKee was a groundbreaking businesswoman. She was a working mom, and she encouraged education for employees to advance and grow. Ruth McKee was a role model for women in leadership. She was my role model. She was also my Grammy.
I'm Debbie McKee Fowler. Today I'm chairman of the board, but you'd know me as Little Debbie. While other snack cake companies may be struggling, McKee Foods keeps thriving. In 2015, they announced an over $100 million investment in their Collegedale factory. In addition, they recently acquired Drake's Cakes, who make devil dogs and yodels, for $27.5 million from the bankrupt hostess.
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Simon Whistler. From the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain Food Show podcast. Check both of them out. They have terrific and regularly great content.
And what a story we heard. Little Debbie is now the chairman of the board of McKee Foods. The story of Little Debbie. Here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get our podcasts.
Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming. The countdown is on for the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light. Catch all seven rounds three days live from Pittsburgh, April 23rd through 25th.
Watch every pick live on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus. It all starts Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Visit NFL.com slash draft for more information.
Subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.nfL.com for terms. People don't listen to radio ads. While you're driving or making a sandwich, your subconscious pays full attention.
So relax. Let it take over. Sunday makes yard care simple with a custom plan based on your soil, climate, and yard size. No pesticides, no harsh stuff. Custom Sunday Lawn Plan.
Order today and get your Custom Sunday Lawn Plan. Ready for the season ahead. Sunday, a smarter, healthier yard. Tired of spills and stains on your sofa? Wash away your worries with Anibay.
Anibay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly prices. That's right, sofas start at just $699. Enjoy a no-risk experience with pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and changeable slip covers made with performance fabric. Experience cloud-like comfort with high-resilience foam that's hypoallergenic and never needs fluffing. The sturdy steel frame ensures longevity, and the modular pieces can be rearranged anytime.
Shop washable sofas.com for up to 60% off site-wide, backed by a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not absolutely in love, send it back for a full refund. No return shipping or or restocking fees, every penny back. Upgrade now at washable sofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
This is Martha Stewart from the Martha Stewart Podcast. Ever wonder how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret. When prepping for cooking and baking, get ahead of the mess. with new Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper.
Just lightly wet the counter so the paper grips. Lay it down. and drips and spills stay on the paper, not on your counter. Cleanup is as simple as lifting it away to reveal clean counters. Effortless?
It is. thanks to Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper. Wet it, set it, prep it, done. Available in the Reynolds Wrap aisle at Walmart and Target.
