Keith West obituary: Remembering a gifted musician and talented sportsman

A loving family man, Central Queensland’s Keith West was a talented singer and sportsman. Read the tribute from his sons here.

Keith West was an accomplished musician and talented sportsman.

Family and friends at the funeral service of Keith West were soothed by the dulcet tones of the very man whose life they had come to celebrate.

They heard renditions of two songs - I’ll Walk With God and The Lord’s Prayer - which were recorded by Keith and remastered by his nephew and highly regarded musician, the late Brad Hooper.

Keith spent the best part of his life in Central Queensland before moving to Brisbane in 2019, where he died aged 93 on August 15, 2022.

Music was an integral part of his life; he was a gifted singer who was a regular at eisteddfods, a key figure in more than 20 Rockhampton Musical Union productions and who even toured Australia with the Elizabethan Trust Opera Company.

His ability was, however, not limited to all things vocal.

Keith was an outstanding athlete who sometimes even learned just by reading books about the different codes he chose to pursue.

He excelled on the local scene in tennis and cricket and later in life at lawn bowls.

As well as his countless achievements on stage and in sport, Keith was most proud of his family.

He met Cynthia Schmidt in the early 1950s and they married in Rockhampton on November 13, 1954.

They had four sons - Darryl, Geoff, Laurie and Gary.

Keith West enjoyed plenty of success on the bowling greens of Central Queensland.

The siblings said that while their father was successful at whatever he took on, in many ways he was quite a private man who loved his wife and family.

“He taught us to fish, and to play sports,” Geoff wrote in the eulogy.

“Backyard cricket was certainly popular and he would bowl us his off-breaks.

“He taught us how to sing if we were interested.

“I have fond memories of a number of caravan holiday trips, up the Queensland coast, down to Brisbane, and a number of Christmas holidays down the coast at Coolwaters Caravan Park.”

Keith was born on April 13, 1929, the youngest of seven children.

He grew up in Yeppoon, where his family ran a butcher shop.

He left school at the age of 13 when some of his siblings joined the Second World War effort.

The Wests at that time held property around Barmaryee Siding, which was eventually sold off and some of which is now part of the Yeppoon Golf Course.

Keith would start and end his working life as a butcher but in between spent 18 years as an insurance agent with MLC.

Keith West was a regular at local eisteddfods and three times claimed the Champion of Champions trophy.

Darryl said his father started singing at age eight and was involved in eisteddfods from age 11.

Keith won a host of solo awards over more than 30 years, and was three times crowned Champion of Champions.

He was noticed in the 1967 win by an adjudicator who wrote to the Elizabethan Trust Opera Company, which resulted in him touring around the country with the company for eight months.

His legacy lives on at the Rockhampton Eisteddfod through the perpetual Keith West Shield for Champion Boy Vocalist.

Keith started cricket when he was about 16 as a spin bowler and handy lower-order batsman.

He progressed through the ranks to A-grade, where he became the opening batsman.

He scored a few centuries over the years, but regretted getting caught out on 99 trying to score an A-grade century.

Geoff said Keith remained an avid fan of the game after he finished playing.

He would sit and watch Test matches on the TV, meticulously recording every ball into a scoring book.

In 1987, Keith turned his hand to lawn bowls, where he savoured success in both singles and doubles for more than 30 years.

A highlight came at age 70, when he won the district veteran singles, beating competitors from clubs across the region.

The West brothers said their parents created a wonderful family and they would desperately miss their father, who was “a gifted person in so many ways”.