Family pay tribute to beloved cartoonist

Legendary cartoonist Murray Ball — who made generations of Kiwis laugh with Footrot Flats — was a serious man who didn’t normally show much emotion.

But when Horse the cat died he became really upset, his daughter Tania Fowell told Ball’s funeral at the Bushmere Arms function centre in Gisborne yesterday.

Although Horse became famous to fans of the cartoon strip as the vicious cat who terrorised Dog, he wasn’t just fiction, said Fowell.

“Horse was real, he was our cat. He really used to drag eels across the road from the creek.”

Fowell said her dad had strong beliefs and principles.

“And he was the enforcer. We soon learned to do what he said. He was hardworking and up before anyone. That was his favourite part of the day.”

Her father also had a quirky side which not everyone saw.

“Sometimes the bogeyman came out in the form of dad dressed in a sheet and he would jump out and frighten us. He would walk around in his undies . . . freely . . . was known to pour a bucket of water over his head in the courtyard . . . often. And he sneezed so loud he would scare the sheep and it echoed around the valley.”

Her husband, James Fowell, said Ball was “like a father” to him and loved the All Blacks.

“Once I remember watching him being interviewed and up came this probing question — ‘ if you could change something what would that be?’ He quickly answered “that the All Blacks would keep winning all the time”.

Ball’s son Mason said his dad was not funny at all and did not get into chatting.

“His idea of a chat was ‘ so what are you going to do with your life? Where do you see yourself in the next seven years?’ — well that was the end of the chat.”

Ball died aged 78, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, at his Gisborne home on Sunday.

He is survived by his wife, Pam, three children and seven grandchildren.