(FORTUNE Magazine) – Susie Mae Lundy, 71, has nine reasons to be proud: The kids she raised with husband Willie J. Smith, 73, a Baptist pastor. The couple, living in one of New Orleans's poorest neighborhoods, set entrepreneurial examples for their children and gave them firsthand lessons in hard work. All nine grew up with assigned chores. By age 5, the six boys were expected to hose down and sweep the driveway of the family's Exxon gas station and auto repair shop. Says fifth child Larry Lundy, 42: ''We knew the food we ate at the end of the day was contingent upon what we did during the day.'' Larry is the family's big success this year. In February the former VP of real estate development at PepsiCo's Pizza Hut paid an estimated $15 million, much of it borrowed, for 31 Pizza Hut outlets in the New Orleans area. His Lundy Enterprises is the nation's largest black-owned fast-food franchise company, with annual revenues of $25 million. Larry is seated with his parents in the photo. Behind them, from the left: Michael, 36, a Mobil Oil executive in Houston; Harold, 44, president of Louisiana's Grambling State University; and Mark, 34, a psychiatric counselor in Houston. Not shown: Wilton, 45, also a Houston psychiatric counselor; Nell, 49, an elementary school teacher in Houston; Lloyd, 47, a VP at Goodwill Industries in Beaumont, Texas; and Jackie, 41, an emergency room nurse, and Yolanda, 40, an accountant, both of New Orleans. Says Larry: ''We never realized we were poor, or upper poor really, till we went off to college.'' He earned a BA in accounting from Dillard University, where four of his siblings also went, and an MBA from Pepperdine. * Back in 1978 the kids led a fund drive that raised about $65,000 to build the church their father now leads. They have also presented their parents with 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.