The auctioneer

High-speed salesmanship 

WHEN HE WAS 12 YEARS OLD, Ricky Timberlake began mimicking the auctioneers at livestock sales he attended with a local farmer who was like a father to him. 

Ricky’s mother died when he was 10 years old, and he and his four younger siblings were cared for mostly by a grandmother and their aunts. But by age 14, Ricky was living with the farm couple, Waldo and Billie Clark, helping with chores and attending livestock auctions nearly every weekend. 

“I would sit there and mimic the auctioneer,” he remembers. “You could see my mouth moving, but I never did get loud. Then I’d do it at home—in the morning sitting at the breakfast table—and sometimes, then, I’d get loud enough that everybody heard me.” 

Soon, he was bringing home awards from high school FFA auctioneering contests, and by 1977 he was a licensed apprentice and on his way to earning a full auctioneering license. 

“Anybody can auctioneer,” he says. “Anybody can say, ‘I’ve got 35-n-40,’ but you’ve got to have what they call ‘filler’ in between.” 

The “filler” came naturally to Timberlake, whose rhythmic chant would become a mainstay in the auction ring at Tri-County Livestock Auction in Henry County, where he worked from 1980 to late 2024. It wasn’t unusual for some in the crowd to show up just to hear him auctioneer, and to enjoy his occasional humorous quips. 

From 1988 until 1999 he was one of the primary cattle auctioneers at Louisville’s historic Bourbon Stockyards. And when the stockyards closed in 1999, he was the one who auctioned off many of its livestock pens, most of its signage and office memorabilia. 

Now, all these years after he began those make-believe auctions at the breakfast table, Timberlake looks back on a livestock auctioneering career that has taken him across Kentucky, from Walton to Greensburg, Flemingsburg, Irvington, Louisville, Owenton, Sonora, Sligo, and Shepherdsville; to Rushville, Indiana; and to many farm equipment consignment sales in central Kentucky and southern Indiana. 

“By the grace of God, I’m still rolling at 69,” he says. “I’ve not slowed down; I’m still affiliated with livestock markets and still having sales.” 

Besides all the livestock, farm equipment and real estate he has sold, he has auctioned everything from a computer mouse to an airplane, countless antiques and other pieces of personal property. 

“I don’t care how fast or slow you are, people still have to understand you,” he says. “If they don’t understand you, they’re not gonna bid.” 

He and his wife, Erma, live on a small farm in Henry County and are consumer-members of Shelby Energy. They have two grown children and four grandchildren: Zay, Zeke, Haevyn and Jase, who range in age from 2 to 10. 

Asked if any of his grandchildren are interested in auctioneering, Timberlake smiles and recalls that 8-year-old Zay recently asked how it’s done, and that when 5-year-old Haevyn was asked if she could auctioneer, she said, “Yes! Daaabadabadabad…!”