by Diane Rice
Courtesy Speedhorse
Keith Babb knew from an early age that he wanted to be an auctioneer. “When I was in the third grade, every Monday the radio station where I later went to work had an auction report about 3:15 when school let out,” he said. “It was the local market report telling how much the stock had brought. I could hear the auctioneer in the background. I was fascinated, and it stuck with me.”
But although Keith, the only child of a Baptist preacher, always had a horse while growing up, his interest in auctioneering and his interest in horses didn’t marry up for several years after he entered the auction business.
When they did, Keith carved a niche that gained him the respect and admiration of all those he served. Since then, he estimates he has dropped the hammer on more than 45,000 head of horses. “He’s been at the Heritage Place auction since it opened in 1978,” said Heritage Place CEO Jeff Tebow of Piedmont, Oklahoma. “It’s been an honor to get to work with him; he’s a fantastic individual and a beautiful soul. I know without a doubt that we’ve had the best auctioneer working for us for those 35 or 36 years. I’m sorry to see him retire, but we understand every season comes to an end and we wish him the best in his retirement.” Babb plans to retire as a full time auctioneer after the Heritage Place Winter Mixed Sale in January.
His Early Years
Keith grew up in Bastrop, Louisiana, about 10 miles north of Monroe, where he and his wife, Carolyn, have lived on their 400-acre ranch for the last 35 years, raising a son, Bryan, and a daughter, Keena.
“I did all kinds of jobs in high school,” he said. “I worked afternoons and weekends as a disc jockey at a little daytime radio station.” When he finished high school, he went to Louisiana Baptist College in Pineville, majoring in television journalism and working at the radio station there.
In 1966, between his junior and senior years of college, he attended the Superior School of Auctioneering in Decatur, Illinois. He also served six months active duty and six years in the Louisiana National Guard.
When he returned home, he went to work at KNOE Radio and TV in Monroe, broadcasting the news on Good Morning Ark-La-Miss, then anchoring the 6 p.m. news, and then becoming news director. “I was there when the first color TV came along,” he said.
In 1971 he quit to pursue auctioneering full time, forming Keith Babb Associates, LLC. “I married Carolyn in 1970,” Keith said. “She taught at Northeast Louisiana University [now the University of Louisiana] in Monroe and I eked out a living.
“It was a struggle,” he said, adding that he sold anything he could to learn the ropes and establish himself as an auctioneer. His determination, dedication and professionalism, along with his down-home South Louisiana manner and his ability to remember and befriend most anyone, made him a sought-after auctioneer.
His Big break
In 1974, Keith saw an ad in The Blood-Horse magazine seeking an auctioneer for a new sales company. “I still have the ad,” Keith said. “I wrote the guy and he called me. When he asked about my experience, I fudged a little and said I’d been around horses all my life. But I’d never sold a horse at all!”
Keith made a demo tape at his kitchen table. The man liked it but had already hired someone, so he promised to call Keith back if he had a need at the next sale. “I thought, Sure,” Keith said, “but he did call me. I asked him to send me a tape of the last sale so I could hear the pacing and do it as the Romans when I got to Rome, so to speak. Then I went up to the Kentucky Breeders Sales Company in Lexington.”
John Starr was the announcer and ran the Arkansas Thoroughbred Sale. He asked Keith to come help Bill Tackett. “Bill and I started at Heritage Place in 1978 and we did them all until he died,” Keith said.
Then the late Tom Caldwell, who had all the major Quarter Horse sales and the Keeneland Sale, decided to quit. “He had all the major sales companies at that time: Ruidoso, Haymaker [now Heritage Place] in Oklahoma City and one or two more,” Keith said. “The sales company sent someone to listen to me in Arkansas and hired me. I went to Ruidoso with the All American Sale in 1975 and the Haymaker, and I’ve been there ever since.” Keith has done all those major sales and more since then. For the past several years, he’s been head auctioneer for the Louisiana Quarter Horse and
Thoroughbred sale companies, Heritage Place, Pacific Coast Breeders, Texas Quarter Horse Breeders and Ruidoso Horse Sales. He also served for many years on the AQHA World Show Sale, the Vessels-Schvaneveldt and Schvaneveldt-Andreini sales, the King Ranch and many other Quarter Horse, Paint, Thoroughbred and Arabian sales throughout the United States.
“He’s the most professional auctioneer I’ve ever known or seen,” said breeder Leverne Perry of Mr Jess Perry fame, who lives in Alexandria, Louisiana, and who’s also a director emeritus of the Louisiana Quarter Horse Breeders’ Association and Keith’s good friend. “He looks out for the interests of both the buyer and the seller. He has both their interests at heart.”
Not only has Keith been on the buying and selling end of the horse industry, but he’s also raised some really nice horses that have raced a little. He partnered with B.F. Phillips on Andy Sixes (Streakin Six–A Little Annie, Tiny’s Gay), a 1986 multiple graded stakes placed stallion. He also bred Colonel K (Shake Em White–This Ladys Royal, Royal Sovereign), a 2006 gelding who made $11,000 in breeder’s awards. “I never did anything real fantastic,” Keith said. “I was just a country boy that did everything I could to stay in business!”
Keith has also sold real estate in probably 20 states for Williams and Williams in Tulsa. He still has broker’s licenses in three states and is still licensed in seven states.
Time For A Change
Time For A Change Keith says being 70 is his number-one reason to retire. Add to that the rigors of travel, particularly the changes in air travel in recent years and the challenges they bring due to his bionic body parts. “I think it’s time for the younger guys to take over the reins of these major sales,” he said. “I live on a 400-acre farm and have cattle and a horse of just about every breed. I enjoy my place and want to spend more time there and with my family, including spending more time at my granddaughter’s activities. And I’m involved in my church as much as I can, and always have been.”
Keith also sees retirement as an opportunity to indulge his passion for hunting. “That’s a big thing I’ve done all my life,” he said. “I’ve been on four safaris to Africa, to New Zealand,
Mexico, 18 states in the U.S. and to Canada six times. I have a trophy room filled.”
At the time of publication in the Speedhorse July, 2014 issue, he planned to travel to Argentina for nine days, as well as to hunt for moose and grizzly bear in Alaska. “I’ve pursued the business pretty hard and heavy,” Keith said. “I’ve worked and traveled on weekends all my life when other people were having fun.
“I’ve enjoyed the fact that I was in business for myself and could work when I wanted to,” Keith added. “Of course, I wanted to work all the time. Now that I’m 70, I don’t have the energy level that I did at 45. But, I love the work and love to sell horses more than anything in the world. It’s the most graceful, most beautiful animal the Lord ever made.
“I’ve been in the right place at the right time,” Keith continued. “I’ve always prayed I could be successful in this business and God has richly blessed me. I’ve worked for some of the greatest people and have made so many great friends and sold so many of these great horses that had made a name for themselves. I’m thankful for the opportunity to do what I’ve done and and work for the great people I’ve worked for.”