It was fitting, her friend Marilla North said, to be celebrating her in the heartland of her birth and childhood.

Mrs Deacon was born in Mayfield in 1926, in a house on Hanbury Street, opposite Webb Park. On Thursday afternoon, friends, family, and comrades gathered at Pettigrew Family Funerals in Mayfield West to pay tribute to her life. She spent her childhood "running around on the hill", celebrant Carolyn Read told the crowd and asked for people to settle in to hear from the many who wanted to sing her praises.

Among them were Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes, and Mrs Deacon's long-time friend and 'comrade' Rod Noble, who said he was stunned when Mrs Deacon rang him six months ago asking him to say something at her funeral.

"I thought at that stage that Vera was going to be there forever but sadly that was not the case," he said.

Mrs Deacon, one of Newcastle's most treasured citizens, died on May 18, at the age of 94. She was well-known for her activism and advocacy as well as her generosity, passion and enthusiasm for Newcastle, the Hunter and its history.

In 2019, she was named a "Freewoman" of the City, and awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2020.

Left-wing politics were central to her life, Mr Noble said.

"We were lucky to have her among us ... and if she were here, she would say, 'Well, now it's for you to carry on'."

Because of her politics, which included membership of the Australian Communist Party, she was spied on by ASIO over many years. In her extensive ASIO files, which she later accessed, she learned that while an ASIO agent was stationed outside her house, he reported back that she'd been up late at night typing.

But, as another speaker, Newcastle Herald journalist Scott Bevan, pointed out, it was not a top-secret manifesto for a revolution that she was writing - it was the minutes for her daughter's school's P&C meeting.

Mrs Deacon "triumphantly failed at give and take", Bevan said, and led a life of sharing. She shared everything she had, from her time and her wisdom to her money and her knowledge.

Her father's final words to her had been "don't be greedy, do good, and keep an eye on the river", and she had taken all of it to heart.

Mrs Deacon's partner, Malcolm Bailey, remembered meeting her when he was six. He fell in love with her then, he said, "as little boys do".

She kissed him on the forehead. He marvelled at the way she made friends wherever she went, and the way in which she respected all human beings, "including six-year-old boys".

Mrs Deacon's eldest daughter, Daria Ball, said it was fortunate, in a strange way, that she was ending her life where she started. She had many fond memories of her mother's love of the region, and her passion for the river. "She'll be haunting the river, I suspect," she said.

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