Kym Bonython crosses his very last finishing line

KYM Bonython was waved across life's finishing line yesterday in one of the biggest and most memorable funerals in Adelaide history.

KYM Bonython's funeral was one of the most memorable in Adelaide history.

He was waved across life's finishing line by racing legend Glen Dix and his chequered flag.

Hugh Reskymer (Kym) Bonython AC, DFC, AFC, KCSJ, was never one to do things by halves.

He was a speedboat racing champion, a racing car driver, a renowned jazz expert and entrepreneur, an important art collector and authority and he had ensured that his funeral would be special by organising its every detail years in advance.

The instructions ran to 30 pages and, when it came time for it all to be executed, it gained the added imprimatur of the Premier, Mike Rann, and status of a State Funeral.

It also had jazz blasting from the steps of St Peter's Cathedral and a coffin bedecked in Vili's pies and chocolate Clinkers, two of Bonython's favourite foods.

Bishop Ian George officiated in a cathedral packed with a vast cross-section of Adelaide society along with the Bonython family, from older brother Warren to Kym's five children, 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, and his wife, the love of his life, Julie.

There were politicians both serving and retired and of each persuasion.

There were scions of the Adelaide Establishment, arts people and RAAF people, red-robed members of the Order of St John, musicians and music-lovers, friends and admirers.

The Lieutenant Governor represented the Crown and, since Kym Bonython was a leading light among Australian Royalists, God Save the Queen was sung by one and all.

The Premier described Kym Bonython as "a buccaneer of the arts", "a combination of Biggles, Hemingway, Fangio and Peggy Guggenheim" and "a man of daring; a man who did a lot and who inspired others to get a lot done".

Among happenings under Bonython's influence were the jazz greats he brought to town - Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie - and even the Beatles and Chuck Berry.

Another initiative resulted in the Grand Prix and then the Clipsal 500 coming to Adelaide. And it was as the jets soared above that car race on Saturday, March 19, that the speed-loving entrepreneur died, aged 90.

He long had lived with a fear of the planes of March since, when he was a fighter pilot in WWII, a gypsy foretold that he would meet his death with a plane in March.

Kym's elder daughter Robyn Cass gave a eulogy for the father who, she said, had grown up as "the Dennis the Menace of East Terrace", had been gored by one of his prize bulls and tamed another with chocolate, had survived crashes on land and sea, had employed the young Kamahl in his jazz record store, had written four books on Australian art and was frugal with electricity.

Bishop George in his sermon declared that all Kym Bonython's funeral plans had meticulously been followed. They included a bugler playing The Last Post, a lone saxophone and, as the coffin left the cathedral, the playing of Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone.

We will, of course.