Don Bayliss on the occasion of his second retirement as owner of Don Bayliss Clothing in Te Puke. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
Don Bayliss on the occasion of his second retirement as owner of Don Bayliss Clothing in Te Puke. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
“We lost one of life’s characters really - and that’s sad because I don’t know if there’s that many around.”
That’s how Cushla Bayliss remembers her late husband Don who, with a short break, owned Don Bayliss Clothing in Te Puke for 45 years.
Don died on June 5.
“The king of cloth died on the King’s Birthday,’ says Cushla.
Born in 1950 and raised in Te Puke, Don spent time in Australia working in the mines and saved enough money to buy the shop he previously worked in from owner Bob Mankelow in 1972.
Don sold the shop in 2002 and retired, only to miss the retail trade and, when an opportunity arose, buy the business back four years later.
On his second retirement at the start of 2018, he told Te Puke Times: “You get all sorts of characters coming in, and that’s what makes your day.”
It was not long before he was shaking things up. Shortly after buying the business, he began stocking the surf gear that has been a mainstay of the business ever since.
At the time, there were four menswear stores in Te Puke.
“I suppose I had a bit of youth on my side and could follow the fashions better than the mature guys who were a bit set in their ways,” he said.
Don Bayliss and his wife Cushla at Christmas.
But it wasn’t just the town’s fashionistas that Don influenced.
Realising customers were travelling to Taupō to shop on a Saturday, he flouted the law by opening on a Saturday morning. At first, it was something that didn’t go down well with other retailers, but it eventually caught on.
He had a bit of a maverick streak all through his retailing career.
Prevented by other surf shops from stocking Hot Tuna clothing, he produced tongue-in-cheek Hot Kahawai T-shirts.
He also became known for creating Te Puke Thunder T-shirts, a reference to a marijuana strain prevalent in the area in the 1970s. According to Don, Billy T James and Prince Tui Teka had the T-shirts.
Tragedy nearly struck in 2014 when, out the back of the shop, he was lucky to survive when a can of petrol he was about to take to the family orchard exploded.
He suffered moderate burns to his arms, face and neck after the explosion, which sounded “like a bomb going off’'.
Don recognised that over the years Te Puke had been good to him, and he repaid the community.
With Shirley McGregor he was an instigator of the Kiwifruit Festival, was a member of various committees of the Chamber of Commerce - the forerunner to Focus Te Puke - and was an avid supporter and sponsor of Te Puke Sports Rugby Club.
Don’s funeral at The Orchard Church was one of the biggest the town has ever seen - a tribute to a man who has left an indelible mark on Te Puke.
Don and Cushla were married for almost 44 years and had two sons, Ben, married to Tess, and Tim, married to Jen, and four grandchildren, Winni, Juni-Peaches, Billy and Harry.
“That changed Don really, having his grandbabies. It brought out another side in Don that was not so jack-the-lad - he was always a soft character, but it really softened him with having those.”
Don Bayliss relaxing in his shop in 2002.
Don had dementia, and Cushla described witnessing his failing health as “watching the demise of beautiful Don”.
In her eulogy, she listed all the things he loved: “Twilight cricket, blo-karts and boats and sailing and fishing and surfing and ciggies, rum and beer, Te Puke Sports Club, mates and tractors and the orchard and microlighting, antiques and yarns, tropical island holidays and rugby, yellow submarine, diving, grandbabies, Chinese checkers, backgammon, his boys, Oxbow Adventure Company, his daughters-in-law and his shop.”
At first, Cushla had wanted a quiet, family funeral with just a handful of special friends.
“That’s what I said to the boys, that’s what I want, and they said ‘that’s not happening, you do know who you married?’,” she said, and laughed.
The family were gobsmacked and overwhelmed by the numbers attending.
“We just didn’t realise there were so many little pockets of people that he had as friends. It didn’t matter if you had 10c or $10 million, it didn’t faze him in the least - he was always the same.
“The warmth in that room and the faces of the people that were part of our lives.”
Afterwards, it was back to the Te Puke Sports clubrooms.
“There were no cups of tea and sandwiches for Don because that’s just not the way he rolled. It was Te Puke Sports, rum and Cokes. That was Don - so we had no flowers, no prayers and no hymns.”
Among those who spoke at the funeral were former New World owner Glen Cotterill and, of course, Ben and Tim.
“Don named [Glen] The Grocer and his speech was outstanding, and the boys and their take on their father and what they remember so fondly and just the character he was. He had this knack of attracting people that made him laugh.”
Since January, Don had a part-time carer for when Cushla was out. “Not that he ever went into the kitchen really, in 44 years of marriage, so we didn’t have to worry about him turning anything on because he wouldn’t know how to.
“When he couldn’t remember my name he called me Gorgeous.”
The family decorated Don’s coffin with representations of many of the things he loved.
“The daughters-in-law and the kids all painted it and we all put our hands all over it with the paint - it was amazing.”
Don and Cushla lived the whole of their married lives in Pāpāmoa, overlooking the ocean and it was with that view, out to Motiti Island, that Don died.
“He is going to be sorely missed, but he is so in the right place,” says Cushla.
