Krystal Keith, the daughter of country music superstar Toby Keith, who died of stomach cancer in February of 2024, recently accepted an award on his behalf and, during the ceremony and acceptance speech, spoke about this dedication to God, family, and country. That award was an honorary degree from the University of Oklahoma.
She said, speaking about his love of the University of Oklahoma Sooners and his excitement about being awarded an honorary degree, “When he learned last fall that he was being inducted to Sooner Nation on this high of a level, he was so excited, and he was so proud.”
Continuing, she spoke about his love of God and family, along with his love of county and the Sooners, saying, “I actually made a joke about how many hours I spent here getting my bachelor’s degree, and he joked that he didn’t have to work that hard to get his. But we all know he earned it and spent many more hours dedicating his life to earning it this way. He loved his family (he loved all of us), God, our country, and Sooner Nation.”
She also spoke about how, when a young teen, Keith would sell drinks at the stadium so that he could watch some of the games and, as would be expected of many a young kid, would sometimes ditch his assigned job to enjoy watching the game. She said, “His passion started far back before he was 12 and 13. He sold Cokes at the stadium just to be able to see the OU games. He joked that he would sell them for half the game, and then he would go sit and watch the game and sometimes got in trouble for not finishing his job.”
Then, speaking about his value of hard work, she said, “Throughout his life and career, he made sure to work hard to have the best, to be the best. He often said, ‘They may write better than me, they may sing better than me, and they may look better than me, but they will NEVER outwork me. And that made all the difference. He was a larger-than-life legend, he was an icon, he did things his own way, his songs inspired nearly everyone in country music and beyond.”
She added that he said to never apologize for being a patriot saying, “He always said, ‘Never apologize for being patriotic,’ and practiced what he preached through his work with the USO [United Service Organizations].” She added, “He was going into the most dangerous zones, where guys that never got those entertainers to come to them, were housed and were sitting, and he would go and boost their morale. And that’s who he wanted to go see. We called him Captain America. And that’s something he earned.”
When Keith died, Krystal wrote, in part, about his love of Jesus and Christian faith, saying, “He made sure to live with Jesus so he could go with Jesus. Jesus taking him home is the cherry on top of the life we got to live with him.”
Featured image credit: By Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Drumsta – https://www.dvidshub.net/image/567723, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39711639