Related content
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ev Boswell made a promise to Phyllis Rudd when she was dying from cancer in 2008.
“Will you look after Jockey?” Phyllis asked her.
Mrs Boswell, who nursed her friend for four months before her passing, promised she would.
Over the past nine and a half years she’s done exactly that. If it wasn’t a phone call it was a visit to the cosy Auburn Street home he shared for so many years with Phyllis, the love of his life.
Still, Allan ‘Jockey’ Rudd’s death at Waminda Aged Care Facility on Friday night came as a shock to Mrs Boswell and husband Ray.
“He was very dear to me,” she said on Saturday.
“I tried to carry out Phyl’s wishes because she just idolised him.”
Mrs Boswell was one of several who sat by Jockey’s bedside on Friday during his last hours. Fred Cooper was there too, his longtime mate and former Goulburn and District Racing Club secretary manager. They shared many happy times working together at the track but as couples, with Fred’s wife, Jill, and Jockey’s wife, Phyllis, they also socialised.
Also there were Jockey’s nephews, Bobby and Barry Rudd.
Mrs Boswell said she would remember Jockey’s many kind acts.
“He visited the hospital all the time and when he had to go into Waminda (Aged Care facility) everyone just came out of the woodwork. All the staff knew him and came out and gave him kisses,” she told The Post.
“He told them he’d been going up there for 33 years (visiting). There’s no doubt that’s where he wanted to be.”
Jockey moved into Waminda some six weeks ago after living many years in the distinctive, tidy home in northern Auburn Street he shared with Phyllis since the early 1950s.
Mrs Boswell met Phyllis about 30 years ago and they became best friends. Jockey was part of the package but she didn’t mind in the least. The couples, including Ev’s husband Ray also socialised together.
When Phyllis became ill, Mrs Boswell nursed her for four months. Over the past nine years she’s kept a close eye on Jockey, checking up on him daily and taking him to doctors when needed. In more recent years he experienced blackouts and several falls, which required hospitalisation.
He baulked at the idea of Meals on Wheels upon release but was soon hooked and looked forward to the daily visits.
Mrs Boswell said Jockey’s character endeared him to many.
“He just enjoyed people and if he could do a good turn for them, he would,” she said.
She also remembered his love of routine.
“They had a back room in the house where Jockey would sit every day. It had a brown stain on the walls but when Jockey was away one time, Phyllis had it painted white,” Mrs Boswell said.
“He came home and she asked him what had changed and he couldn’t guess. She had to tell him in the end...He never wanted anything changed.”
His faith was also important to him. Only illness kept him away from Sunday morning Mass at Sts Peter and Paul’s Cathedral and his regular pew occupied by other familiar faces. When he couldn’t attend, a priest came to his home to serve him Communion.
On Friday, a priest made a special trip from Canberra to anoint him, Mrs Boswell said.
Goulburn’s Bobby Breen
Bobby Rudd was there for much of the day and couldn’t help but notice a photo in his uncle’s room. It was Jockey as a teenager with well-oiled hair, proudly holding a trophy nearly as big as him.
He’d just won the Bobby Breen singing competition. Forever after, he was known as Goulburn’s Bobby Breen. He became one of the city’s paid radio artists, performing live on Radio 2GN and on 2CH in Broadway, Sydney, Jockey told The Post in 2013. He was also asked to sing at private parties.
Bobby said his uncle was like a second father to him after his own dad, Edgar, passed away.
“He was an easy going fellow who spent all his time checking up how everyone else was,” he said.
“The thing I’ll remember most is how inseparable Dad and Jockey were as brothers. You couldn’t go down the street without seeing them together. They were great mates.”
Both thrived despite the family struggles. Their parents, Myra and Albert had nine mouths to feed – six boys and three girls.
Bobby said the children all left school early by necessity, with some picking fruit at Charles’s orchard behind Rocky Hill and Jockey becoming an apprentice butcher with Des Hague.
On Friday, Bobby and his brother had only been gone for an hour when they had word their uncle had died.
His passing was also felt by other family members.
Niece Judy Nelson of Wagga Wagga sent her reflections to The Post.
“He was a true gentleman and true gentlemen are very hard to find. He was always very welcoming when I went to visit to help me out with The Rudd Family History I started in 2001. He had a great memory that you could just sit and listen to all day.
“He had so many stories about his family and how he was a bit of a rogue, and told me about his boxing years. He said the Rudd boys loved a fight and could handle themselves.
“He also told the story of how he bought the house with his greyhound dog winnings, the rose garden that was erected in Phyllis’s honour and how proud he was of it.
“He always spoke about Phyliss and how he adored her and you could tell by the way he spoke about her that his love for her was just amazing.”
Jockey is also survived by his sister, Gladys Cavanough and many nieces and nephews.
Funeral details are still being finalised.