Kenneth E. "Ken" Byrd, Sr. spent all his life devoted to the Auction Business Ken Byrd, President, Owner, Broker & Auctioneer of Ken Byrd Realty & Auction, Inc. has been a licensed and professional auctioneer since 1967. He grew up with eight brothers and one sister on a South Central Kentucky farm on the Kentucky and Tennessee border near Albany Kentucky and Byrdstown Tennessee. Ken learned at an early age the importance of hard work and team effort to produce successful results. He attended public auctions with his dad from his early childhood and along with basketball, auctioneering became his passion. He learned the auction "chant" around the age of fourteen and practiced his bid calling for hundreds of hours. In 1965 Ken won the Kentucky state amateur tobacco auctioneering championship. During the summer of 1966 he completed professional training by graduating from the Nashville School of Auctioneering.

Ken received his B.S. Degree in Agriculture-Business from Western Kentucky University in 1971. While at WKU he worked part time as a professional auctioneer and helped establish the auctioneering bid calling contest at Western's annual FF A agriculture field day. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army Military Police Corps in 1971, and later served seven years with the 2nd Battalion, 100 Division, US Army Reserves as a training officer and company commander.

He worked for Farm Credit Services from 1971 to 1975 in the member services department, and as a field office manager. In 1975 he obtained his real estate licenses and once again pursued his first love of auctioneering along with private real estate sales. After a partnership in a major real estate company in Bowling Green, he established his own company in 1980 and has operated Ken Byrd Realty & Auction, Inc. since that time.

Over the years his company has conducted multi-millions of dollars in sales throughout Kentucky and the North Central/Upper Cumberland area of Tennessee. His firm is recognized as a leader in creative advertising and marketing of real estate at auction. Ken has won numerous awards, most recently winning *"Best Auctioneer" of Bowling Green in 2001 and 2003 and "Favorite Auctioneer" of Bowling Green in 2002. The Kentucky Auctioneers Commission calls on Ken from time to time to conduct continuing education seminars in various phases of the auction business. Mr. .Byrd has served on the board of directors of the Kentucky Auctioneers Association, numerous other boards and currently is a member of the Edmonson County, KY Planning Commission.

*These awards were based on a Daily News/March of Dimes Readers Survey.