Legend Biography

John Stephens, President and owner of RNT Calls Inc., was born and raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas. He grew up hunting ducks and geese from an early age. This strong interest in hunting quickly sparked an interest in duck calls and their history. His grandmother gave him some of his grandfather’s old calls at age 8, which ignited his strong passion for Duck calls and Collecting. At age 11 he began calling lesson from local legendary callmaker Butch Richenback. He soon found himself helping Butch in his shop making calls. After graduating from Stuttgart High School he went on to earn a degree in landscape architecture from Mississippi State University, a field in which he worked for a short while; however, his fondness of duck hunting, competitive duck calling and call building brought him home. John was the youngest to ever qualify for the World’s Championship Duck Calling Contest at the age of 13 under the tutelage of the late Butch Richenback, founder of Rich-N-Tone Duck Calls. After his first time of competing in the World’s Championship, John went on to win the World’s Championship its maximum of 3 times in 1995, 1998 and 2005 while never finishing outside the top 5 from 1994-2005. In 2015 he won the coveted Champion of Champions which is held only once every 5 years and only open to past World Champions, culminating his competitive career. He is married to his wife Angie Stephens for 24 years and has a 19 year old son, Reece and 17 year old daughter Riley.