The legacy of the late founder of one of Johnson County’s oldest pizzerias lives on through the lifelong lessons of hard work, generosity and kindness he passed on to his children.
Joe Walker, who founded Old Shawnee Pizza in downtown Shawnee in 1969, died on Jan. 28 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease, according to his obituary. He was 87.
As the original pizza joint on Nieman Road continues — now with the addition of two more metro area locations — two of his children are still abiding by the values their father instilled in them.
“He lived his whole life, from his 30s to over his 80s, doing this day-in and day-out,” said William Walker, Joe’s son who now co-owns the business with his sister Lisa. “That kind of gives me (the drive) every day to get up and go to work. He did it for so many years, so I’m going do it.”
A native of Moline, Kansas, and Navy veteran, Joe Walker was, as his son said, a fun-loving, old-fashioned guy who succeeded by being kind to others and making them feel valued.
“He probably raised thousands of his employees as his children,” he said. “Growing up, he would pay for their college tuition. He would pay to help get a car fixed. It was just whatever they needed. He was there to help out, just like a father would.”
William and Lisa now run the business’s three locations, including two sit-down restaurants in Shawnee and Lenexa and a carry-out/delivery spot in the Crossroads District in Kansas City, Missouri.
Walker didn’t intend on becoming a pizza guy
Growing up on a farm in rural Kansas and having served in the Navy as an airplane mechanic, Walker was living in an apartment with his wife and three daughters when he went into the pizza business in 1969, creating the restaurant he called Pizza Shoppe.
That name stuck for decades before Walker changed it to Old Shawnee Pizza in the early 2000s.
“He was doing odds-and-end jobs trying to make a living, and then getting into the pizza business was kind of like, ‘Well, this is my last shot. If I’m going to make it work, we’re going to have to do something and hopefully I can pay the bills right’ thing,” William Walker said.
Unexpectedly, it was a huge success.
“When he first opened up, I know for a fact he didn’t expect it to be what it kind of turned in to being, 56 years later,” he said.
Opening the original location across the street from its current location at 6000 Roger Road, Walker saw its footprint, as well as its menu expand, gaining lifelong faithful customers and making him a local celebrity.
“He could go anywhere and my dad would run into somebody he knew,” Walker said. “(It was like) he’s running for mayor every time we went out. But that’s just the way he was. He didn’t know a stranger.”
Walker built a legacy with his family
When asked to describe his dad, Walker outlines a guy who always had a joke on-hand at gatherings and a stern father when it came to business.
Although inheriting the business was rarely discussed, William said Joe prepared him throughout his childhood and, later, after William came back from serving in the Marines, in a hands-off way.
“He really never sat me down and told me, ‘This is how you do it,'” William said. “It was one of those where you just worked with him every day and you just followed his way of doing things and you picked up on, ‘He was doing it this way, so this is the way I’m going to do it.'”
In 2003, William and Lisa took over the business and Joe retired to do some of his favorite activities, like hunting and fishing. On occasion he would stop in for a quick shift and to see how things were going.
“If he was in town, he was in there, whether it (was him) washing dishes, rolling out the pizza dough, making pizzas,” William said.
Even as his memory began to fade from Alzheimer’s and he was put into his children’s care, Joe’s knowledge of the pizza business remained.
“I brought him in here, and he still knew how to roll a pizza dough,” he said. “Up until about a month before he passed, I had him in here, kind of watching (him). I was like, ‘Well, I gotta go to work.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I’ll go to work with you.'”
Walker taught the importance of customer care
Coming from humble beginnings, Joe taught William that a little extra care will keep people coming back, which he still institutes.
“When times are tough, a lot of people always want to pull back. He’s like, ‘Well, when times get lean, you want to put a little bit more on (their pizza). That way, people get a little bit more for their money. People will recognize that,'” he said.
While the restaurant has experimented with different dishes and pizza toppings, William said they continue to follow Joe’s advice to keep true to its customer favorites and ingredients.
“(Some customers have) been coming here for so many years, and they know that they can get the same thing that they came and got, maybe a month ago, and it’s going to taste the same. You’re not going to screw around and try to lower the quality,” he said.
The business is staying in the family
Working with his own son now, who is 29, William Walker said that he’s hoping to keep the business in the family, if he wants it.
“Maybe it’ll be one of those things where you pass it down to the next generation,” William said. “Running a family business gets harder and harder every year. But as long as I’m alive, this is what I know. This is what I want to do. This is what I’m going to do.”
On top of that, every day William works in the store is a trip down memory lane and a tribute to his father.
“I enjoy interacting with people and hearing stories and all that. Like, ‘I remember your dad did this in 1974’ kind of thing. It’s like, he made an impact on somebody, whether it be an old worker or a customer or something like that, he left an impact on people.”
