Wife of famous cobbler passes away
Ayr has lost one of its most famous faces.
Rebecca ‘Reba’ Quinn – wife of Blaney, the cobbler who spent 40 years in a close off Ayr’s Hope Street – passed away suddenly at Ayr Hospital last week. She was 88.
Reba and Blaney dedicated their lives to their shop in the lane, now named Blaney Quinn Close after the family fought to have the pair’s decades of work immortalised.
She is survived by daughter Joy McDowall, grandchildren Nicola, George and Phillip and six great grandchildren.
Joy told the Post: “My mum worked with my dad in the shop from the day they opened right to the end.
“Initially Reba was to go in for a couple of hours to keep the accounts. But quickly that turned into two mornings, then three, then four and before she knew it she was working there full time.
“She literally worked with Blaney her whole life and I don’t know how she managed it. I would have killed him because he used to wind my mum up terribly and she always fell for it.
“Blaney used to throw down the shoes and Reba would say ‘hey, that was nearly my leg!’ But my dad before they finally called it a day – but Blaney sadly died just months later.
Since then Reba spent much of her time reading and knitting to keep her mind active.
“She just kept knitting people scarfs,” said Joy.
“Even if she’d just given me one I’d get another, I’ve got a drawer full of them.
“But she was really good right up until the end, she even kept in touch with her grandchildren on her iPad!”
Latterly, Reba was often seen picking up her magazines at Ayr’s Morrisons every Friday afternoon with Joy’s husband Robert.
She spent 58 years at her home in Nursery Road and in her last few years Reba’s neighbours Margaret and Jim Agnew would deliver her favourite newspapers the Daily Record and, of course, the Ayrshire Post.
Margaret and Jim kept a close eye on Reba through spells of illness and Joy said: “If her curtains weren’t open at a certain time they would phone us.
“Last year she had a severe chest infection and if it wasn’t for them I would dread to think what would have happened. I simply cannot thank them enough.”
Reba was rushed to hospital on Sunday, July 19 at 11pm and sadly passed away at 3am the following morning.
Her funeral is on Friday, July 31 at 10.30am. The hearse and car will be leaving Kincaidston at 10am and going down Peggieshill Road then down Nursery Road before driving up to the crematorium.
Friends are asked to donate to her favourite charity, the British Red Cross. The Arthur Street store reopened on Monday and donations can be handed to Jackie behind the counter.
Blaney and Rebecca Quinn when they finally called it a day at the workshop in 2013
She literally worked with Blaney her whole life