By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
CADDO VALLEY, Arkansas — Four years ago, Jenifer O’Keefe Spears received the heartbreaking news that her father, Ronnie O’Keefe, had died in a car accident while driving along the shores of the very lake where, nearly four decades before, he had opened the doors of what would become a staple family restaurant. In the months that followed, the Spears family pumped the brakes on their life in Dallas and returned home to run the restaurant, keeping her dad’s dream alive.
Now, Spears is ready to turn the page and start another chapter.
Spears announced on Facebook this week that she plans to sell The Fish Net, emphasizing that the restaurant will remain open indefinitely.
The sale would include the franchise, restaurant and catering business.
“Dad always said to me, ‘Sell the restaurant if something ever happens to me, because I don’t want you to be married to it,’” Spears told The Arkadelphian in a telephone interview. “It was my dad’s dream to run the restaurant.”
Spears, 48, is expecting her first grandchild and hopes to devote her time to family and interior design—the profession she put on pause to run the restaurant.
In the four years that Spears has been at The Fish Net’s helm, she has kept the family business on course, seeing it through to celebrate a milestone 40th business anniversary.
“The Fish Net has been a successful, family-owned restaurant for four decades,” Spears said in the Facebook announcement, “and I am beyond proud of what my father created. This place holds so many memories, traditions and loyal customers, and it deserves someone who shares the same passion for the restaurant business that my dad did.”
Spears said she is “at peace” with the decision to sell. “I think dad would be proud of me for following my dreams,” she said.