KILPATRICK NAMED INDUSTRY OF THE YEAR

John Hensarling, Andy Shehee, Virginia K. Shehee, Nell Shehee Kramer, Ronald Loe Margaret Shehee (right)

The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce are honored to present this year’s J. Pat Beaird Memorial Industry of the Year Award to Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company and Kilpatrick’s Rose-Neath Funeral Homes, Crematorium and Cemeteries Inc.

The J. Pat Beaird Memorial Industry of the Year Award recognizes a corporate entity from the Greater Shreveport area for their outstanding business achievements, and honors the memory of J. Pat Beaird Sr., whose lifetime of community service helped make Shreveport and Louisiana a better place to live and work.

The criteria for the award are the same as those Beaird himself sought to promote: real dollar expansion, community involvement and the creation of new jobs. Businesses qualifying for the award must also represent an industry that employs a large personnel staff.

“On behalf of the directors, officers and fellow employees of Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company, we are honored to receive the Industry of the Year award from the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce and are very proud to be a part of the communities which we work and serve in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi,” John A. Hensarling, President/CEO Kilpatrick Life Insurance Company, said.

Kilpatrick joins an illustrious list of past winners that include AEP Southwestern Electric Power Company, Libbey Glass, General Motors, Alloyed Piping Products, Atlas Processing, Print Pack, Frymaster Corporation, BASF, General Electric, LSU Health Sciences Center, Barksdale Air Force Base and Ivan Smith Furniture.

Kilpatrick was started in 1932 by Virginia Kilpatrick Shehee’s father, Lonnie Benjamin Kilpatrick, with the help of his wife, Nellie Peters Kilpatrick. At the time, the Great Depression was forcing many families to struggle just to meet basic expenses. If a loved one died, it was nearly impossible to afford burial costs. Perceiving the need to help these families, the Kilpatricks established KLIC, which could ensure the payment of a family member’s burial expenses.

Always the optimist, Lonnie expected the best from everyone, and his generosity was legendary. He often accepted food dishes as payment – and even a puppy once that became Virginia’s Christmas present.

During the years, KLIC and Rose-Neath increased in size thanks to excellent customer service and the expansion of products and services such as the acquisition of Bayou State Insurance in Minden in 1967 and Central State Life Insurance Company in Alexandria in 1982. Most recently, Rose-Neath opened two more funeral homes in Marksville and also Vivian.

Today, the Kilpatrick grandchildren serve as directors and board members that guide an excellent executive and support staff, all holding true to the company’s mission statement: “To maintain the highest ethics in providing personal and professional service to the clients and communities in which we live and work.”

Leadership for the company includes Hensarling, president and CEO; Ronald Loe, vice president, chief marketing officer and agency director; Virginia K. Shehee, chairman emeritus; Andy Shehee, vice president and chairman of the board; Nell Shehee Kramer, vice president and director; Ann Shane Shehee, honorary director; Margaret Shehee, director and secretary/treasurer; Dr. Harvey W. Rubin, director; Dr. Christopher Martin, director; Veva Grant, director; and William H. Lewis, director.

KLIC and Rose-Neath are separate corporations under common family ownership, and KLIC is the largest domestic life insurer in the state. KLIC still remains based in Shreveport after 80 years and also operates in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

KLIC has two subsidiary companies – Kilpatrick Financial, which represents more than 25 of the largest life insurance companies in the world, and State National Fire Company.

Statewide and nationally, the company and its leaders have won many awards and served on numerous boards. Margaret and Virginia have both served as chairmen of the American Council of Life Insurers and along with Virginia’s mother the Louisiana Insurer’s Conference.

“This is a special award and honor for us, and we’re humbled and appreciative to receive it,” Loe said. “Shreveport-Bossier is such a vibrant business community. To be selected for this is truly spectacular.”

Loe has worked with KLIC for 26 years and adds he is very grateful to have been able to work with Virginia Shehee and her family and company for so long.

“I consider it a real blessing, in the truest sense of the word,” he said. “To work with a family that cares so deeply for their employees and the entire community ... the personal loyalty and commitment to individuals here is unparalleled. We look forward to continuing this rich tradition as we move forward into the 21st century.”

For the staff at Kilpatrick, work and family are one and the same.

“Our work life and our personal lives are so intertwined; there’s no distinction,” Nell said. “Our mother demonstrated and instilled in us a respect and caring for others regardless of who you are or your economic status, and we carry that to our jobs and our clients.”

Nell said that her mother, Virginia, worked her way into a successful position along with her mother and father through her own determination and hard work.

“They started out with almost nothing,” she said. “I remember grandma saying they used to shoot jackrabbits during the depression just to have something to eat.”

When the Kilpatricks came to Shreveport from east Texas, they bought a house in Shreveport, made a funeral home out of it, and Virginia grew up upstairs just like in the movies, Loe said.

Andrew, too, remembers an inspirational story his grandfather, Lonnie, would tell him.

“In the early years, my family owned the Kilpatrick Chevrolet Company, which closed during the Great Depression,” he said. “My grandfather moved near Farmerville, La., to join his brother, my Uncle Noel. So my grandfather told my uncle he wanted to open a funeral home in Shreveport, and my uncle told him the odds were against him and he’d never make it. It was a risk. He did it anyway, and he was truly successful.”

Of course, the one person who everyone at Kilpatrick admires is Virginia, who has built the company from her father’s foundations and still comes in to the office to this day.

“As long as I’ve worked here, I’ve seen every expression you can imagine from Virginia,” Loe said. “There has never been any doubt about who was in charge around here, but Virginia had a way of stepping on your toes as hard as required but without harming the shine on your shoe. She could make you do whatever she needed and make you feel great about it.”

If a situation required something more, Virginia would just call it in.

“There was one time that she called the governor, when Buddy Roemer was in office,” Loe said. “It was something he could fix, and Virginia said to get him on the phone. During the time we were waiting for him, she looked at us and said, ‘I fed that little kid a bottle.’ When she got him, she handled the niceties and after 30 seconds she told him, ‘Buddy, listen, here’s what we need.’ There’s lot of stories like that. She’s a legend in her own time.”•