Leroy Van Dyke

Leroy Van Dyke, recognized above all as the composer of the country novelty staple “The Auctioneer” and the country-pop blockbuster “Walk on By”—his most enduring success—grew up in Missouri with an early ambition to work the land. He earned degrees in agriculture and journalism from the University of Missouri, where he first took up the guitar. An uncle’s career as an auctioneer inspired Van Dyke to study livestock auctioneering, and he spent a period practicing that trade before turning to newspaper reporting after graduation.

During the Korean War he was posted to Korea, where he began entertaining fellow servicemen and wrote “The Auctioneer,” a song drawn from memories of his uncle and dedicated to a cousin; the recording embeds authentic auctioneering calls. After his discharge he resumed journalism in Chicago yet continued performing, including appearances on Red Foley’s Ozark Jubilee television program.

In 1956 Van Dyke entered a talent contest on Chicago radio station WGN and performed “The Auctioneer.” DJ Buddy Black became his manager and inserted contract language that granted himself co-writing credit and half the royalties. Issued on the Dot label, the single entered the pop charts late in 1956, reached the country charts early the next year, and climbed into the Top Ten.

Van Dyke moved to Nashville in 1961 and signed with Mercury Records. One of his first releases, “Walk on By,” ascended immediately to number one on the country chart, where it stayed for nineteen weeks, and crossed over to the pop Top Five. His smooth tenor gave the fast two-step cheating song a distinctive, urbane edge that helped establish it as a country classic. The track earned him a Grammy nomination and was followed by the major crossover hit “If a Woman Answers (Hang Up the Phone)” and the Top 40 entry “Black Cloud.”

He joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1962. Later Mercury singles met only modest success, prompting a 1965 switch to Warner Bros., where “Roses from a Stranger” reached the Top 40. In 1967 he appeared in the film What Am I Bid? Although he continued recording through the decade, his only additional chart entry was “Louisville” in 1968. Van Dyke nevertheless remained a strong attraction in Las Vegas—among the first country artists to package and deliver his own self-contained show—and at other upscale venues. He cultivated a rural stage persona wrapped in countrypolitan polish, describing the result as “city-style country music” on the album The Leroy Van Dyke Show.

A last minor hit, “Texas Tea,” arrived in 1977, the same year old friend Shelby Singleton produced the albums Gospel Greats and Rock Relics. After Branson, Missouri, emerged as a country-tourism destination, Van Dyke performed there regularly and kept appearing at agricultural trade shows and livestock auctions that had shaped his early career. He continued working fairs, festivals, livestock events, rodeos, supper clubs, conventions, agricultural expositions, and private functions well into his late eighties, and he supervised the 2018 Sun Records compilation Cowboy Country that collected his 1950s recordings.