IT was a fitting send-off for one of the world's leading legends of country music.
In a ceremony filled with life stories, applause, tears and song, Golden Guitar and Logie Award winner Reg Lindsay OAM was farewelled in style.
A vintage horse-drawn hearse carried Lindsay to St John's Anglican Church at Cessnock where about 250 came to pay their respects.
Lindsay, 79, of Kearsley, died in hospital last Tuesday of pneumonia. He had a cerebral haemorrhage at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 1994 and later, a heart attack and a triple bypass.
He won four Logies and three Golden Guitar awards, wrote more than 500 songs and was at the helm of two long-running television shows. He became the first Australian artist to be recognised with a plaque on Nashville's Walkway of Stars.
Yesterday's funeral heard that despite Lindsay's international and national fame, he was "just dad" at home.
His three daughters Dianne, Sandra and Joanne paid their tributes to their father, with Dianne performing a special song.
Mate Geoff Mack told how Lindsay had boundless energy, loved horses and was a practical joker, sometimes ringing him in the middle of the night to see if he wanted to buy a camel.
A motorised vintage hearse took Lindsay to Aberdare Cemetery, escorted by three police vehicles and several horse riders.
Lindsay is survived by wife Roslyn, his daughters and grandchildren.
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