Excerpt from Eulogy for Ronnie Easton
(2nd October 1938 - 20th August 2023)
Composed and conducted by Stewart Allan, Humanist Society Scotland
Wednesday 30th August 2023 1200hrs Borders Crematorium thereafter Lauder Cemetery
I would now like to pay tribute to this remarkable, unique and much loved man with a short simple ceremony.
Tribute
Ronnie was born at Home in Gardenhill in Muirkirk near Cumnock in Ayrshire on the 2nd October 1938 to parents Sarah and David Easton. His dad had various jobs including working down the local pit and Sarah worked as well as being a housewife and mum.
When Ronnie was 10 he had rheumatoid fever and was hospitalized and his mum said that if he behaved himself in hospital he could get an accordion. It’s doubtful if he did behave himself but he got an accordion anyway and had lessons from Robert Adamson. After learning to read music Ronnie became a fantastic player and had his own band by the age of 14 and were playing gigs before he left school. As his first band they all deserve a mention Rab Lowe on piano, Geordie Craw trumpet, Billy Johnstone drums and occasionally ????? Meikle drummed too and Kenny Wilson had a few tunes with them too.
After his mum died he and his dad stayed with his grandad in Auchencruive and it was here Ronnie learned to poach. He always enjoyed trout fishing with rod and fly but learned how to catch them when they weren’t biting too.
Ronnie went to Muirkirk Primary and High schools where he was a bright clever friendly boy but wasn’t an academic and as he got into his teenage years he only went when he felt like it.
Ronnie left school as soon as he could and his first job was as a faceworker at the local Kames pit, his mum insisted he study at college and get his HNC’s and he studied hard and got his qualifications. In 1957 he was underground when there was an explosion in another shaft tragically killing 17 of his friends and workmates.
Ronnie told the manager of the pit to stick his job or words to that effect. Ronnie had a great work ethic and had a popping along job until he got a job with John Foster and Sons cloth manufacturer and was made redundant 6 years later.
When playing at a rotary Club dance he was told about an American company Monsanto opening in Dundonald and Ronnie worked there for the next 14 years until being made redundant.
Ronnie’s carried on playing and in his younger days could be rolling in at 2 or 3 in the morning and have to be up at 6 to go to work but he thrived on it. He played with Tommy and the Travelers after saying he would give it a go for 6 weeks and played with them for 6 years and they would gig all over Scotland.
Ronnie always liked to dress well and be colour co-ordinated and had a trademark of matching his shirt colour with his socks, something he liked to do all his life, Jean once counted them and he had over 90 pairs.
Ronnie along with his friend Brian Griffan entered competitions around Scotland and to Belgium France and Denmark and enjoyed all the craic with the other competitors and picked up some of the foreign languages from all the different countries.
He played with all the greats of the Scottish country dance scene and performed for the “Thingummyjig” shows at the Gaiety in Ayr, Barfield Pavilion in Largs, in Castle Douglas, Gatehouse of Fleet and Castle Douglas to name but a few, he would also play the working men’s clubs around Dundee and Fife coast as part of a variety show with Hector Nicol, Mary Lesley, Ken Swannie and the puppet Magee of whom he was feart but thought he was hilarious. He swore like a trooper and loved Hector Nicol’s patter and stole many of his one liners and could have the whole company cracking up with laughter.
Ronnie was a great raconteur especially with a few wee nippy sweeties in him and he had a wealth of stories in him and in later life was a joy to be with he had lots of patter and was great fun.
I mentioned a nippy sweetie earlier and Ronnie loved a good malt whisky and is going on his final journey today with a glass, a bottle of Glenlivet some fudge and a tube of pringles for a last deoch an doris.
Sometime in the early 70’s he was playing at Craigie College in Ayr when he heard someone playing the piano and he immediately exclaimed “f*****g hell I like the soond of that”. It was Derek Lawrence who later asked Ronnie to join the band, leading to another chapter in Ronnie’s life.
They played together travelling the country for gigs every weekend until Derek emigrated to Canada in 1976, but the boys, Kenny Thomson, Jim Barry, Neil MacMillan and Sandy Coghill wanted to carry on and they drafted in the late Colin Finlayson on piano and Ronnie took over the band which went from strength to strength.
They had their first BBC Scotland broadcast in 1977 in Studio 1 in Glasgow and again they played all over the country having lots of laughs along the way. There are many tales of vans breaking down for days on end, of bunnets flying off heads on ferries, clothes going missing when folk were skinny dipping in the freezing cold loch and many more stories I can’t repeat.
They were a hit on Take The Floor and played 5 times having great craic with Robbie Shepherd
During this time he met Margaret and they were married and when they were on holiday in England in 1979 just after he had been made redundant from Monsanto he had a wee look in the local paper for jobs which led to Ronnie emigrating to Englandshire for around 25 years when he worked in security for Halfords.
Sadly he gave up playing regularly and the box would only come out at Hogmanay and New Year for a wee tune or two. However I doubt if this stopped him buying and selling accordions as he was undoubtedly the Del Boy of accordions.
In 2003 he and his wife Margaret returned to Ayrshire and he bought a house in Newmills. Margaret had a stroke and Ronnie looked after her for a number of years until she passed away.
A good few months later he fell into the hands of Derek Hamilton who took him to the local accordion bug and Ronnie got the bug back again. He practiced every day and he and Derek would travel all over the country for a tune.
He re-met Jean at the Isle Step Club in 2014, they had been teenage sweethearts when she was 16 and he was 19 however with his band schedule in the early days and living in Muirkirk, they hardly saw each other and agreed to go their separate ways but they never totally forgot about each other either.
When they met, Ronnie and Jean embraced and spent the rest of the night blethering and reminiscing.
Jean would normally be snoring all of the long 74 miles home, however on that night she never shut up she even had her feet up on the dashboard giddy as a schoolgirl.
The spark must have still been there as a few days later after a convoluted way of getting her number Ronnie gave her a call. Jean hadn’t intended going to The Dunblane accordion club to see Jack Delaney but changed her mind after the phone call and lo and behold who was there but Ronnie and she sat with Ronnie all night with his good friend Derek playing gooseberry.
They have hardly been apart ever since, initially they would stay a week in Lauder and a week in Newmills and family wouldn’t know where they were and have to make an appointment to see them!
He got on well with Jean’s family, Jim and Elaine, Bob and Yvonne, Angus and Carly and June and all his step grandchildren and step- great grandchildren and they have had some rare nights and jam sessions with a few nippy sweeties thrown in.
Eventually Ronnie sold his house in Newmills and moved in with Jean in Lauder and they were a tonic for each other and were incredibly happy in their twilight years with a few nippy sweeties, lots of stories and lots of laughs, and continued until last year to have a tune at the local accordion clubs which he fair enjoyed and also to listen to the guest bands.
They had a fantastic 80th birthday party in 2018, which June spent many a night blethering about Ronnie’s life and the people he played with and she surprised him with a This Is Your Life Book and told his story to many of you who are here today, and I have shamelessly plagiarized lots of the information.
They were married in Melrose on 11th January 2020 where Derek Hamilton was best man and June was their flower girl.
Ronnie enjoyed Christmas and was good at buying presents for Jean though it didn’t need to be Christmas for him to surprise her with a wee gift, for himself at Christmas he liked a pair of socks, preferably wrapped around a good bottle of malt.
He read the newspaper every day and usually completed the crossword and subscribed to the monthly Box and Fiddle magazine in which he often featured. When his eyesight began to fail Ronnie who had always played by reading the music learnt to play by ear and was still a fantastic player. He enjoyed quizzes on the telly like Countdown, Catchphrase and Bullseye.
As you may know Ronnie had good health for most of his life, however old age began to creep up on him, his eyesight began to fail and he suffered from the usual ailments, however lately he had pancreatitis.
He became quite poorly but never failed to give out his funny one liners and cheeky comments, always had an answer.
Everyone visited regularly but there was to be no betterment and it gives everyone great comfort that his family were there for him and for each other with Scottish dance music playing in the background when Ronnie passed away peacefully on the 20th of August and is allowed to rest in peace.
Ronnie may be gone but he will live on in your memories and he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.
I would now like to pay tribute to this remarkable, unique and much loved man with a short simple ceremony.
Tribute
Ronnie was born at Home in Gardenhill in Muirkirk near Cumnock in Ayrshire on the 2nd October 1938 to parents Sarah and David Easton. His dad had various jobs including working down the local pit and Sarah worked as well as being a housewife and mum.
When Ronnie was 10 he had rheumatoid fever and was hospitalized and his mum said that if he behaved himself in hospital he could get an accordion. It’s doubtful if he did behave himself but he got an accordion anyway and had lessons from Robert Adamson. After learning to read music Ronnie became a fantastic player and had his own band by the age of 14 and were playing gigs before he left school. As his first band they all deserve a mention Rab Lowe on piano, Geordie Craw trumpet, Billy Johnstone drums and occasionally ????? Meikle drummed too and Kenny Wilson had a few tunes with them too.
After his mum died he and his dad stayed with his grandad in Auchencruive and it was here Ronnie learned to poach. He always enjoyed trout fishing with rod and fly but learned how to catch them when they weren’t biting too.
Ronnie went to Muirkirk Primary and High schools where he was a bright clever friendly boy but wasn’t an academic and as he got into his teenage years he only went when he felt like it.
Ronnie left school as soon as he could and his first job was as a faceworker at the local Kames pit, his mum insisted he study at college and get his HNC’s and he studied hard and got his qualifications. In 1957 he was underground when there was an explosion in another shaft tragically killing 17 of his friends and workmates.
Ronnie told the manager of the pit to stick his job or words to that effect. Ronnie had a great work ethic and had a popping along job until he got a job with John Foster and Sons cloth manufacturer and was made redundant 6 years later.
When playing at a rotary Club dance he was told about an American company Monsanto opening in Dundonald and Ronnie worked there for the next 14 years until being made redundant.
Ronnie’s carried on playing and in his younger days could be rolling in at 2 or 3 in the morning and have to be up at 6 to go to work but he thrived on it. He played with Tommy and the Travelers after saying he would give it a go for 6 weeks and played with them for 6 years and they would gig all over Scotland.
Ronnie always liked to dress well and be colour co-ordinated and had a trademark of matching his shirt colour with his socks, something he liked to do all his life, Jean once counted them and he had over 90 pairs.
Ronnie along with his friend Brian Griffan entered competitions around Scotland and to Belgium France and Denmark and enjoyed all the craic with the other competitors and picked up some of the foreign languages from all the different countries.
He played with all the greats of the Scottish country dance scene and performed for the “Thingummyjig” shows at the Gaiety in Ayr, Barfield Pavilion in Largs, in Castle Douglas, Gatehouse of Fleet and Castle Douglas to name but a few, he would also play the working men’s clubs around Dundee and Fife coast as part of a variety show with Hector Nicol, Mary Lesley, Ken Swannie and the puppet Magee of whom he was feart but thought he was hilarious. He swore like a trooper and loved Hector Nicol’s patter and stole many of his one liners and could have the whole company cracking up with laughter.
Ronnie was a great raconteur especially with a few wee nippy sweeties in him and he had a wealth of stories in him and in later life was a joy to be with he had lots of patter and was great fun.
I mentioned a nippy sweetie earlier and Ronnie loved a good malt whisky and is going on his final journey today with a glass, a bottle of Glenlivet some fudge and a tube of pringles for a last deoch an doris.
Sometime in the early 70’s he was playing at Craigie College in Ayr when he heard someone playing the piano and he immediately exclaimed “f*****g hell I like the soond of that”. It was Derek Lawrence who later asked Ronnie to join the band, leading to another chapter in Ronnie’s life.
They played together travelling the country for gigs every weekend until Derek emigrated to Canada in 1976, but the boys, Kenny Thomson, Jim Barry, Neil MacMillan and Sandy Coghill wanted to carry on and they drafted in the late Colin Finlayson on piano and Ronnie took over the band which went from strength to strength.
They had their first BBC Scotland broadcast in 1977 in Studio 1 in Glasgow and again they played all over the country having lots of laughs along the way. There are many tales of vans breaking down for days on end, of bunnets flying off heads on ferries, clothes going missing when folk were skinny dipping in the freezing cold loch and many more stories I can’t repeat.
They were a hit on Take The Floor and played 5 times having great craic with Robbie Shepherd
During this time he met Margaret and they were married and when they were on holiday in England in 1979 just after he had been made redundant from Monsanto he had a wee look in the local paper for jobs which led to Ronnie emigrating to Englandshire for around 25 years when he worked in security for Halfords.
Sadly he gave up playing regularly and the box would only come out at Hogmanay and New Year for a wee tune or two. However I doubt if this stopped him buying and selling accordions as he was undoubtedly the Del Boy of accordions.
In 2003 he and his wife Margaret returned to Ayrshire and he bought a house in Newmills. Margaret had a stroke and Ronnie looked after her for a number of years until she passed away.
A good few months later he fell into the hands of Derek Hamilton who took him to the local accordion bug and Ronnie got the bug back again. He practiced every day and he and Derek would travel all over the country for a tune.
He re-met Jean at the Isle Step Club in 2014, they had been teenage sweethearts when she was 16 and he was 19 however with his band schedule in the early days and living in Muirkirk, they hardly saw each other and agreed to go their separate ways but they never totally forgot about each other either.
When they met, Ronnie and Jean embraced and spent the rest of the night blethering and reminiscing.
Jean would normally be snoring all of the long 74 miles home, however on that night she never shut up she even had her feet up on the dashboard giddy as a schoolgirl.
The spark must have still been there as a few days later after a convoluted way of getting her number Ronnie gave her a call. Jean hadn’t intended going to The Dunblane accordion club to see Jack Delaney but changed her mind after the phone call and lo and behold who was there but Ronnie and she sat with Ronnie all night with his good friend Derek playing gooseberry.
They have hardly been apart ever since, initially they would stay a week in Lauder and a week in Newmills and family wouldn’t know where they were and have to make an appointment to see them!
He got on well with Jean’s family, Jim and Elaine, Bob and Yvonne, Angus and Carly and June and all his step grandchildren and step- great grandchildren and they have had some rare nights and jam sessions with a few nippy sweeties thrown in.
Eventually Ronnie sold his house in Newmills and moved in with Jean in Lauder and they were a tonic for each other and were incredibly happy in their twilight years with a few nippy sweeties, lots of stories and lots of laughs, and continued until last year to have a tune at the local accordion clubs which he fair enjoyed and also to listen to the guest bands.
They had a fantastic 80th birthday party in 2018, which June spent many a night blethering about Ronnie’s life and the people he played with and she surprised him with a This Is Your Life Book and told his story to many of you who are here today, and I have shamelessly plagiarized lots of the information.
They were married in Melrose on 11th January 2020 where Derek Hamilton was best man and June was their flower girl.
Ronnie enjoyed Christmas and was good at buying presents for Jean though it didn’t need to be Christmas for him to surprise her with a wee gift, for himself at Christmas he liked a pair of socks, preferably wrapped around a good bottle of malt.
He read the newspaper every day and usually completed the crossword and subscribed to the monthly Box and Fiddle magazine in which he often featured. When his eyesight began to fail Ronnie who had always played by reading the music learnt to play by ear and was still a fantastic player. He enjoyed quizzes on the telly like Countdown, Catchphrase and Bullseye.
As you may know Ronnie had good health for most of his life, however old age began to creep up on him, his eyesight began to fail and he suffered from the usual ailments, however lately he had pancreatitis.
He became quite poorly but never failed to give out his funny one liners and cheeky comments, always had an answer.
Everyone visited regularly but there was to be no betterment and it gives everyone great comfort that his family were there for him and for each other with Scottish dance music playing in the background when Ronnie passed away peacefully on the 20th of August and is allowed to rest in peace.
Ronnie may be gone but he will live on in your memories and he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.