…not easily forgotten, a kind and selfless heart who only ever wanted to make people smile. He had an extraordinary ability to make people laugh – and he didn’t mind if it was at his own expense.

He had that rare talent for making everybody around him instantly love him, even total strangers – on a recent trip with his daughters to the Kweilin restaurant, he went to the toilets and came out singing, laughing and joking with a group of guys he’d never met. They joined his table, and when they left, shook his hand and put money on the table insisting that “dinner’s on us.” That’s was Mitzi, he lit up the room wherever he went.

All his life, he was keen to share and help others, often doing so on the QT. He’d set off to buy milk and end up getting messages for a neighbour and some cakes for staff at the local Barbers’ shop where he stopped for a chat. There were a few bemused looks when he returned home two hours later.

At the agoot.

He was left with a very bad limp and reflected on those times in the usual Mitzi fashion by calling himself 4ft/5ft and pointing out that he could walk perfectly straight if he put one foot on the road and the other foot on the kerb.

He was well known as a champion at marbles, again the calliper didn’t hold him back, he would bend his good leg and stretch out his callipered leg, so it was completely horizontal. He described the technique as looking like a half-shut Swiss Army Knife.

At the age of 16, Mitzi – still wearing his callipers - got a job as a “nipper” the kid on a building site who would nip to the shops to get the guys their rolls, tobacco or biscuits. On his first day a builder asked him his name. When he said “my name is Gaynor”, the guy came back with “like Mitzi Gaynor the American actress?” From that moment on, James was Mitzi to everyone.

A life-long Hearts fan, his love of football extended to coaching and helping the local football club, regularly washing team strips. On one occasion accidentally putting the red socks in with the white strips dying the entire team’s kit pink. The boys were not pleased to step onto the field to jeers of, “here come the flamingos!”

Mitzi was a much-loved regular on a Saturday night at The Docker’s Club, where he made numerous friends. And he, of all people, personified the Docker’s motto We Persevere.

He had a great talent for singing from an early age, crooning away to popular tunes of the day - legend has it you couldn’t get him off the stage at The Dockers! He performed in countless clubs and competitions, once taking home the princely sum of £500 for his turn at The Kings Theatre.

Mitzi’s singing also played a big part in winning his wife Ann over, she heard him singing Englebert Humperdinck’s Love is All upstairs in Govan’s pub and it soon became the theme tune to their growing love.

Mitzi was utterly delighted to become a much-loved father of Paul, Stephen, Denise and Tracy and later down the line grandad to four grandchildren and ten great grandchildren whom he adored.

Mitzi’s family tell me that even after being admitted to hospital he never gave up hope, a cheeky wee monkey to the end. They are extremely grateful that they got to say goodbye before he passed away peacefully at 12.35 am on Friday the 21st of June whilst listening to Frank Sinatra.

He leaves behind a thread of love, joy, kindness, and mischievous humour which has been woven into the lives of all who knew him.

His was a life well lived; a ‘few’ vodka and cokes with ice (no lemon), myriad stories, and an immeasurable number of songs. ■

Thanks to Tracy Gaynor & Fleur Mellor