By Dr. Curtis Varnell
Arkansas history and culture are sometimes found in the oddest of places- this week on the snack food aisle of virtually every grocery and convenience store in America. Shelves of them, over 70 different varieties of Little Debbie’s snack cakes. All of us have our favorites, mine being the original product; the oatmeal cakes consisting of two cookies surrounding all that delicious white creamy stuff. Oatmeal cookie, a cup of coffee and history; what a combination.
Little Debbie’s were first made in Chattanooga, Tennessee and is one of the few products that had its beginnings and first success during the Great Depression. O.D. McKee began selling his oatmeal cookies for five cents each, delivering them to stores in the back of his 1928 Whippet family car. Instead of the traditional cookie, he developed a method of making the cookie soft while placing a fluffy crème filling between two of his products. The Oatmeal Crème pie was born, and its still one of the top sellers in the line.
Expanding his business, Mr. McKee began marketing the cakes as a family dessert and placed them in boxes of twelve. By selling in larger amounts, he was able to provide the cakes at 49 cents a box, saving thrifty-minded people a dime with each purchase.
The original McKee Baking Company expanded through the years following the war and became a regional enterprise with a factory in Collegedale, Tennessee. Along the way, several new varieties developed and the business expanded. The actual Little Debbie brand was developed in 1960 when O.D decided to name his new family pack cartons after his 4-year-old granddaughter, Debbie McKee-Fowler. The first full-color portrait of her was introduced that year and has become the trademark and one of the most recognizable names in America. The add worked, Little Debbie sold 14 million cakes in the first 10 months. Now 70-year-old, Little Debbie sits on the board of the national company.
By the early 60’s, Little Debbie was a national known product with zebra cakes, Nutty Buddy, Chocolate rolls, and other products jumping off the shelves in America. After the moon landing in 1969, Moon Crunch was developed. A couple of the snack cakes made it into outer space when the Pumpkin Delight was eaten by astronauts onboard the Atlantis as they celebrated thanksgiving. A Cosmic Cupcake accompanied a weather balloon into space in 1991. Little Debbie’s were even named the snack cake of the 1982 Worlds Fair in 1982 and thousands of the cakes were handed out to visitors.
Arkansas came into the picture in 1982 when McKee Foods opened a manufacturing plant at Gentry, Arkansas. The facility was built to expand and supply products for western United States and Mexico. It quickly grew to become one of the largest businesses in the state and served as an economic engine for the area. Driving through the area, you realize its importance when you observe the size of the plant, see the number of trucks pulling into and out of the facility, and realize that they hire more than 1,500 employees. The plant sometimes offers tours but, the best part for we connoisseurs of sweets, has a company store on highway 59 that provides free samples and a product at a discount price.
Little Debbie serves to remind us of American enterprise at its best. A hard-working man, an innovative ideal, and persistence pays off. An individual once delivering a product door to door from the back of his family vehicle now has semi-trucks delivering thousands of cases of his product nationwide. Over 200 million boxes of Little Debbie’s cakes are sold each year.
For the 50th anniversary in 2010, the company made a gigantic oatmeal cookie that weighed over 200 pounds. In 2023, they topped that with a double oatmeal cookie 3-foot-wide and weighing over 200 pounds and gave away samples at the Hamilton County, Tenn. Fair. It was gone in an hour. Now, for 2026 and the 250th celebration of America, could you people at Gentry construct a 250-pound model for us at the Washington County Fair? Just let me know!!!!
