Tributes to local champion
Tributes have poured in for Livingston man John Hoey, who passed away earlier this month aged 78.
For years John managed Craigsfarm in Craigshill, and was known and loved by those who used the facility.
A former Glaswegian, John worked in John Brown shipyards before moving to the new town Livingston with his wife Nan who then came to work in Craigsfarm café, where her cooking proved highly popular.
John then worked at Longannet Power Station as a shop steward before becoming full-time manager at Craigsfarm which was not just a job for John but a hobby and started a lifetime dedication to helping others.
Realising the lack of things for young people to do, he managed to set up a state-of-the art recording studio where bands could rehearse, even putting one forward to the BBC Rock School.
The then newly- formed Newtown Entertainers were amongst the first to utilise the little theatre he created in the farm precinct.
John also realised that many incomers to the new town were moving into larger houses and some would not have enough budget to afford new furniture and so he managing to get more affluent residents to donate unwanted furnishing items and opened a second hand furniture shop anext to the café.
It was a little advertised fact that nobody ever left empty- handed there. If a family needed something and had no money, it would be discreetly delivered in John’s van.
There was also a crafts shop where local people could sell their hand knitted and sewn items at modest cost and a hall where birthday events, anniversaries and even after funeral parties could be arranged.
The Hoeys had no children but were much loved aunty and uncle to their nephew and nieces and were devoted to their little Yorky dogs.
The children in the community loved them and at school lunch times, the café would be overflowing with hungry children It was also said that no youngster ever went hungry here as Nan and her team would ensure anyone lacking in funds was discreetly well looked after.
John also always took it upon himself to attend the funerals of local residents he had met.
Lifelong family friend Cathie O’Boyle, chairwoman of Craigsfarm, fondly remembers the time the council rang John Hoey at 2am one morning urgently requiring a bed for a needy resident who had nowhere to sleep.
“It was not a problem. John sorted it, delivering a bed from the furniture store within the hour.” she recalls.
Sadly John’s wife Nan passed away in 2012 and the onset of dementia and Alzheimers forced John to reluctantly give up his work at Craigsfarm, but not before he left a stateof- the art set- up which was to benefit generations to come.
Locals said he would have loved to have seen the entirely new community hub which now replaces the original Craigsfarm, which is scheduled to open in June.
In fact, his face, together with his signature bunnet, is commemorated in a mural in a Craigshill underpass as a tribute by the grateful graffiti artists whose work he encouraged.
Many tributes have flooded on to Facebook from the many Livingston residents who remember John Hoey with great fondness and love.
A very modest man, he always refused to accept credit for all the work accomplished at Craigsfarm.
He managed to set up a state-of-the-art recording studio