Louie Ricci, veteran livestock auctioneer, dies at 97

Louie Ricci, a longtime Santa Rosa livestock auctioneer who volunteered his singular skills at countless county fairs over several decades, died Dec. 14 at a care facility following complications from a fall. He was 97.

The lifelong Sonoma County resident ran the Santa Rosa Livestock Auction yard for?36 years with his wife, Claudia, until they sold it in 1984. The Fresno Avenue agricultural institution closed the following year, a casualty of industry consolidation and development pressures in southwest Santa Rosa.

But Ricci continued doing what he loved at the Petaluma Livestock Auction Yard through the 1990s and at the junior livestock auctions that were his passion through the 2000s.

“He was very proud of the Sonoma County Fair,” said his daughter Jaqueline Tucker. “His love was doing it for the kids. He believed in 4-H and supporting the future of agriculture.”

Born June 19, 1917, in Oakland, Louis L. Ricci grew up on dairies in Bodega Bay and graduated from Tomales High School. As a young man, Ricci was invited to attend a livestock judging competition in Kansas City in 1937, a trip made even more memorable by some dramatic sightseeing he was able to sneak in along the way.

“One of his fondest memories was of riding a mule down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon,” Tucker said.

During World War II, Ricci walked into the old Friberg’s Drugstore on Broadway in Sonoma to get ice cream and walked out with a crush on the clerk, Claudia Gonnella, whose family lived near his in Occidental.

“It was a Sunday afternoon, and I went in to get a banana split.?.?. That was in January, and we were married in May,” Ricci said in a Press Democrat article in 1997.

The couple first lived on a Sonoma dairy on Duhig Road, then in Kenwood for years where they raised their two daughters. They later moved to Santa Rosa.

Ricci became a cattle buyer for Chris Beck, the Petaluma meat wholesaler and fair board member. They traveled around the North Coast buying cattle for feedlots and packing houses. One day, Beck asked him to wear a white shirt and clean pants the following day, and that was the start of the Junior Livestock Auction at the Sonoma County Fair.

It was the beginning of a passion that spanned decades, leading him to volunteer at junior livestock auctions in several counties. As an auctioneer, Ricci had a style that favored comprehension over tongue-twisting speed. “He had a very smooth chant. Everybody could understand him,” Tucker said.

In 1989, Ricci was awarded the “Lifetime Contribution to Sonoma County Agriculture” award from the Sonoma County Fair board, as well as a “Leadership in Agriculture” award from the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to his auctioneering, the family man loved gardening and running barbecues at agricultural fundraisers. His marriage to Claudia lasted ?69 years, until her death two years ago.

In addition to his daughter Jaqueline Tucker, Ricci is survived by daughter Sharon Neidlinger of Redding; sister Nilda Mulas of Sonoma; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Services will be private. Donations can be made to the Sonoma County Fair Foundation, the 4-H Foundation of Sonoma County or to a local chapter of Future Farmers of America.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.