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The National Cowboy Museum announced Toby Keith and others will be honored at the 65th Western Heritage Awards this spring.
Keith will receive the Special Directors’ Award at the event, which aims to “honor individuals, films, literature, and music that preserve and promote the culture, values, and history of the American West.” It takes place at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Other honorees in the Class of 2026 include Hall of Great Western Performers Ed Harris and Kenny Rogers, Hall of Great Westerners Arthur Nicholas and Luster Bayless, Chester A. Reynolds Award recipient Richard Oliver, and Western Visionary Award recipient Rex Tillerson.
“Thank you to the [National Cowboy Museum] for honoring Toby with the Special Directors’ Award this year,” reads a post on the late country legend’s Instagram account on Wednesday (February 4). “Toby’s family is grateful to the museum for recognizing his place in history and how his career served and celebrated the country and Western way of life.”
Keith “passed peacefully…surrounded by family,” on February 5, 2024 after a years-long battle with stomach cancer. He was 62. The Clinton, Oklahoma-born legend is survived by his wife, Tricia Covel, daughters Shelley Covel Rowland and Krystal Keith, son Stelen Keith Covel, and his grandchildren. Tricia Covel said when her late husband was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October 2024 that “there’ll never be another Toby Keith.”
The Western Heritage Awards will take place April 10 and 11, 2026.