Ron Brown

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Biography

Ron's Eulogy read at his funeral service by his grandson Simon

Ronald Albert Brown 5th May 1917 – 10th September 2000

Ron was born in Lithgow on 5th May 1917, the second of five children to Catherine and Albert Brown. He remained close to his two brothers Eric and Reg and his sister Jean for the whole of their lives. His youngest sister Lorna died before she was 2. He went to Lithgow School and then Coowerwell School when they moved to a house that his father built in Ordinance Avenue. Throughout his life he loved nature. With his brother Reg they had an aviary and Ron won first prize at school for his birds. The ability to build was to run in the family because after leaving school Ron got a job with Dick Ellis, their next door neighbour, who was a builder. In order to get more work opportunities he moved to Sydney and boarded with his Aunt Millie and Ern Mitchell in Ashfield. He got a job bricklaying and did a trade course at Ultimo Tech. His ability to excel at bricklaying meant that he was quickly singled out to do the more detailed jobs. He got to do the harder arches and fireplaces that no one else could do.

It was then that he bought a Norton motor bike, and with his brother Eric, he would ride back to Lithgow every weekend. The bike was stolen, which upset him, but eventually, he replaced it with a red Singer two seater sports car. Ada and Daph say “You could hear the ‘Red Terror’ coming from miles away.”

Lithgow before the second World war was a swinging place and Ron, with his brothers Eric, Reg and their friends, had a reputation for having a wild time. Rumour has it that they would sleep off a hangover in the park before going home to face their mother.

One place to go on a Saturday night in Lithgow was to one of the dances. Ada Cowie went to the Old Time dance and Daphne Cowie would go to the Jazz dance with her cousin Jean Yates who was keeping company with a Reg Brown. It was at one of these dances that Ron first met Daph. The relationship became a loving one that lasted for nearly 58 years.

Ron was later to make a lifelong friendship with Ada’s boyfriend, and later husband, Eric Jamieson.

Shortly after this the Second World War broke out and Ron joined the Airforce. When Daph’s father Tom died, Ron got a discharge from the Airforce. He became the pasty cook in the family business opposite the Royal Theatre in Main Street Lithgow. Daph recalls how delicately she suggested that Ron would be able to manage as a pastry cook. “If you can mix cement you can mix cakes” she said. He not only managed but became renowned for the “Best cakes and pies in Lithgow”.

Using his building skills and with the help of his two brothers and father, he built a house in Rifle Parade. Later, with the help of Wayne, he would build the house in Forester’s Beach and also help Wayne with his two houses. The building genes obviously showed up in Wayne and later in Timothy. Ron was very proud when Tim graduated as an Architect at Newcastle in April this year.

Ron had a number of ‘phases’ in his life. One was when he bought some greyhound racing dogs as a form of exercise. Although they showed promise, only one ever won a race and was nominated to race at Harold Park. It pulled a muscle in the trials. The final straw came when during a morning exercise walk the dogs saw a cat and pulled him over, breaking his arm.

In these early days in Lithgow the Cowies, Browns, Jamiesons and Watsons formed a very close group meeting every Sunday for a baked dinner at his mother-in-law Daph, or Mum as she was known by the whole family. Ron, Leo and Eric would often take fishing trips together. Rarely with many fish to show for the trip but often with other souvenirs such as Eric’s army hat with hundreds of holes where it had been used as target practice.

When Daph’s mother took over the catering contract at Lithgow golf club he took up golf. In the beginning he managed to control his slice. The record was six balls in a row over the pine trees, the railway line, the Western Highway and into the petrol station on the other side of the road. He continued to enjoy golf in Lithgow and then Long Jetty for about 30 years until he couldn’t manage to walk 18 holes any more. He was also an enthusiastic member of Rostrum and Toastmasters for some years in Lithgow.

Early in 1969 in Lithgow, he came home one night to announce that he had sold the house and business, and so in Easter 1969 he and Daph moved to Foresters Beach. After completely rebuilding the house there, Ron once more took up his occupation of bricklaying with several builders. Once again, because of his ability, he was given the most difficult jobs to do and made a number of friendships in the process. One of the more notable jobs at this stage was when he worked on the Old Sydney Town project where one of the requirements was to wear a convict uniform with large stipes. The closest he ever came to going to goal. He continued in the building work until his heart attack in 1977. This was the first of a series of battles that Ron had with his health. He had two mild strokes and a bout with cancer which all took their toll. But with the love and care of Daph he lived through all of these and, until only two weeks ago, managed to lead a quality life.

No one could ever accuse Ron of being afraid of hard work. For the twenty years as a Pastry cook in Lithgow his normal routine was to get up at 5 am and rarely get home before 7 pm. During this time he also built the house in Lithgow. It was a similar routine when he did bricklaying. In his whole working life he hardly ever took a ‘sickie’. But with all the hard work he also believed in taking holidays with his family. In the early days it was camping at Forster with Nan and Pop senior and Reg and Jean. For a couple of years it was at Manly with Cess and Joan Deeley and Jim and Ann Ryan. Then caravanning at Swansea. For a couple of years he owned a speed boat and took the boys water skiing on the Hawkesbury. With Daph, he went on a boat cruise around the South Pacific on the Oriana. In later years they went to Adelaide with John and Leonie and on numerous trips up north with Wayne and Margaret. In 1993 all six went to Hamilton Island to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Anyone that ever knew Ron would know that there were some very special qualities that made him stand out. The first I’ve already mentioned and that was his commitment to the belief that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing well. Anything he ever took on he excelled at, whether it was brick laying, pastry cooking, sport, or just being a good father and family member. Maybe the only exception to this was when his first girl grandchild came along. He took every opportunity to look after Kylie by himself and on one occasion when Daph and Margaret returned home they found the results of Ron’s first attempt to change a nappy. The nappy had been carefully gathered up by the four corners and held with a safety pin. Margaret says that Kylie could have crawled out of the nappy through any of the holes.

He loved children, not just his own but all his grandchildren, his great grandchild and his nephews and nieces, and, they all loved him. He was considered by them to be ‘silly’, ‘funny’, ‘naughty’, and even by one of his grandchildren as ‘the village idiot’, but always with love and affection. He retained his childlike love of things all of his life. It was common to wake early to find him sitting with one of his under 5 year old grandchildren watching cartoons or the 3 Stooges on TV. He loved a joke and delighted in playing games with the children in his family, particularly ones where you could cheat. No matter how hard Greg tried, he could never win at cards because Ron would always pull an ace out of his sock. Of course he would always make sure that he was caught out.

Andrew’s favourite story is that Nan would give Ron $20 to go with the kids to buy some fruit, bread and milk. They’d come back with fruit, no bread, milk, and $20 worth of chocolates and lollies. But no matter how much Nan would rouse, he’d still do it the next time.

Kylie remembers staying at Nan and Pop’s for the weekend with Andrew and both being sent to the bedroom with a smack for being naughty. Ron would sneak in lollies and then within another 10 minutes they’d both have ice creams.

Tim remembers holidays with Nan and Pop being “total fun. Playing board games with Pop and going down to the beach”. Mike remembers how glad Pop always was to see us and the barbeques that he put on.

Cheating and practical joking to Ron was always in good humour and throughout his life he never passed up an opportunity. When Ron and Daph had the shop near the Theatre Royal they had to go to the movies on separate nights so that someone could mind the shop. Ron would usually go on the first night. Nan remembers on one occasion Ron telling her and Ada that they were not going to enjoy the picture, “Its too sad. They all finish up dying”. Ada said that in that case she wasn’t keen on going because she didn’t like sad pictures. When they did go to see it, they both sat through the whole movie waiting for different ones to die but the movie finished and everyone was still alive. I can’t repeat what Ada said when she saw Ron after the movie.

At Margaret’s 21st birthday party he arranged for John to drop something in the middle of her cake just before she was to cut it. It was a second cake specially made for the purpose of tricking her. At his last day at ‘day care’ three weeks ago he was caught cheating at dominos. Probably the best example of his cheating backfiring on him was in Lithgow when he was playing golf in a foursome with Leo as a partner. On a par 3 Ron hit his ball into the trees and after searching for it for some time, Leo suggested that because they were out of sight of their opponents that he drop another ball and just play it rather than declare it lost. He did and when the first person putted out they said “Oh! Here’s a ball in the cup.” Ron’s first ball had bounced off a tree and into the hole for a “hole in one” and, because he’d cheated he couldn’t claim it.

When he had the cake shop in Lithgow he was renowned for his whistling. If customers came into the shop and couldn’t hear him whistling they’d ask, “What’s wrong with the canary”?

Ron’s sense of humour was incessant. The only way you could ever tell that Ron wasn’t feeling well was if he didn’t crack a joke or didn’t whistle. His sense of humour runs in the whole family. His sons, grandchildren and great grandson have the same love for a joke, but in particular his brother Reg not only resembled Ron physically but had the exact same warped sense of humour. Once when they walked into the Long Jetty Golf Club together, the barman looked up and said “Oh God, don’t tell me there’s two of you!”

He had names for all the children in his family. Michael was ‘Micky Drippin’, I was ‘Canary Legs’ or ‘the Blonde Bombshell’; Tim was ‘Tiger Tim’, Kylie was ‘My Favourite Grand Daughter’, Andrew was ‘Squirt’ and Jessup was ‘Blowfly’.

I still remember the “laughing bag”. No matter how many times he made the bag laugh, I would still find it hilarious. He had stock answers for most things. Whenever he knew that I wanted something in particular he would say “Gee, a bloke came around yesterday with a big box full asking if we knew anyone who wanted any and I told him no.” Somehow I always believed him. His response to “You can’t take your money with you” was “I can. I’m changing it into traveller’s cheques”. He invented ‘fractured fairy tails’ long before they ever appeared on TV. To Jessup’s delight he would tell him about the ‘Three Pigs’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ all in one very mixed up story. Leonie recalls him coming back from a walk along the beach with the three of us boys saying, “Well, they’ve wrecked the beach!”

He loved fruit. Watermelon was his favourite. Every summer he’d buy a big watermelon and cut it up with all the kids and we’d eat it until it was all gone. Ron enjoyed a beer and even his grandchildren knew this. On one occasion when Ron was working up the back hill, a three year old Andrew went to the back door and sang out “Hey Pop, do you feel like a Tooheys”?

He loved the Royal Easter Show and he especially loved it when he could take us with him. We did too because we’d come home with as many show-bags as we could carry.

He loved music. In his earlier years he played the violin very proficiently by ear and accompanied his mother-in-law Daph and his sister-in-law Ada at any of the many sing-alongs. In his later years he lovingly handed over the role of family violinist to Timothy and me and delighted in hearing us play on any occasion. He would sit for hours and listen to Dad play classical music on the piano.

There are not many people of whom you can say that they dedicated their lives to making the people around them happy, but Ron made sure that every day of his life he brought just a little bit of happiness into someone’s life. Our memories of Ron, of his kindness, his love for his family and his unique sense of humour will continue to bring happiness to each us for as long as we live.

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Sources

No sources. The events of Ronald's life were either witnessed by John Brown or John plans to add sources here later.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Thanks to John Brown for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by John and others.