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“I thought I had died
and gone to Heaven.”
Those were the often times
repeated reaction of Rollie
Rosenboom to his first-time
experience with the Midwest
Stud Ram Sale. He had come
to Sedalia with his neighbor
and longtime friend, Darryl
Kleinert who had Hampshire
entries. Rollie had consigned a
Suffolk yearling ram that won his class and was named Champi-
on Ram. This entry sold for the “princely sum of $425, an excep-
tional price for 1964!
That was simply the beginning for Rollie’s Sedalia experiences
as he made his mark as a consignor, buyer and auctioneer at
the Midwest Sale and came to exert a profound influence not
only on major sheep sales, but on the entire sheep industry as a
whole. His dominating personality brought him forth as a Mid-
west Sale Icon, joining the ranks of Rollo E. Singleton and V.B.
Vandiver, founder of the event, and William T. Doak, the only
remaining person to have been involved in every one of the Mid-
west Sales. Now 92 and the youngest in his family, Bill and his
brother Doug bought the Champion Ram at the first Midwest
Sale held at the old University of Missouri Livestock Pavilion in
Columbia. Each of these three men had major involvement with
their breeds and the sheep industry as a whole. Singleton was
the longtime Executive Secretary of the American Corriedale
Association as well as the Missouri Director of Agriculture and
Missouri State Fair Director. Vandiver served as President of the
American Hampshire Sheep Association, was one of the initial
directors to the American Sheep Producers Council and served
over 25 years as Superintendent of the Missouri State Fair Sheep
Show. Likewise, Doak had special influence as President of the
American Southdown Breeders Assn, President of the Missou-
ri Sheep Producers and Director to the National Wool Growers
(ASI), and member of University of Missouri, Board of Curators,
including a term as Chairman of that
Board. He was instrumental in the
establishment of the Missouri Sheep
Merchandising Council. These leaders
were involved!
Rollie Rosenboom was of the same
pattern. He knew while in high school
that he wanted to farm, raise sheep
and become an auctioneer. He did all
three in short order upon graduation
from high school. His sheep activities
began in high school with sheep shear-
ing and raising of Shropshire sheep, he
soon switched to Suffolks and within a
year out of school he had his auction-
eer’s license. He immediately started
selling household sales, farm machin-
ery sales and other local auctions. In-
cluded were lots of charity auctions such as the livestock sales
at county fairs and the Sale of Champions at the Illinois State
Fair. Rosenboom never knew the meaning of moderation, and
he sure couldn’t spell the word! His farming operations grew
to over 2400 acres of the rich farmland roughly an hour south
of Chicago. That was corn and bean country, big time farming!
An apt illustration of his drive and ambition was his 15-year ex-
perience as a John Deere dealer in addition to all of his other
activities. Presumably his big machinery auctions led him to this
dealership. No way was he content to operate in a normal man-
ner, selling some two or three big ticket combines annually. He
got himself hooked up with big time custom combiners in Tex-
as and Oklahoma who wanted to begin each season with new
equipment and then sell all of it at the end of the season and
begin all over again the next year. He was soon selling upwards
of 40 combines a year. An incredible number for any dealership!
He ended up with the largest combine allotment in the state of
Illinois. He had his real estate license some five years after grad-
uation and this became his most major activity with offices in
five rural communities.
So it was with his Suffolk sheep enterprise . . . full steam ahead,
always striving to get bigger and better and he did so with spec-
tacular success. He was deeply involved in Suffolk affairs and
spent some 25 years on the Board of Directors of the Nation-
al Suffolk Sheep Assn. Nearly all of his fellow board members
joined him as a consignor and buyer at the Midwest Stud Ram
Sale, and while many of them also consigned to other sales, few
of them ever bought sheep in those other events. In a sense,
Rollie Rosenboom was a true pacesetter. He offered consistently
strong consignments most years under the care and direction
of Sarah & Kevin Kuykendall.
His entries always sold well and
offered tough competition in
those “Suffolk Hay Days.”
He was also a spectacular buy-
er! Never one to embrace the
ordinary, one year he arranged
to buy the first fifteen yearling
ewes for the unbelievably total
sum of $85,000! The crowd on
hand was simply speechless,
but not Dorsey McLaughlin
of California, veteran Corrie-
dale and Herford breeder, who
watched this spectacle and stat-
ed, “I’ve seen lots of purebred
sales and...
story continued on page 33
Tribute to a Midwest Sale Icon...
Rollie Rosenboom
Photo A:
Roland Rosenboom and Curt Overcash
studying a sale order prior to the sale.
...his imposing size, booming voice, strong chant
and knowledge of the people in all breeds
throughout the Country made him a
force to be reckoned with.
Photo B: by Nicholas Holstein of the Daily Journal, Kankakee Valley, Illinois
Roland Rosenboom, of Clifton, leads the Kankakee County
4-H Livestock Auction back in 2012 at the fairgrounds.
