Farewell to “Rompin” Ronnie Hawkins — who leaves a Citroën legacy…

Canadian rock’n’roll legend Ronnie Hawkins died yesterday at the age of 87. ‘The Hawk’ was a charismatic showman from Arkansas who moved to Canada and recruited a handful of local musicians later known as the Band. He played a crucial role in developing local talent and gaining a reputation for being a rowdy, larger than life rockabilly singer. Anyone that met Ronnie experienced his friendly down to earth charm.

While he remained a U.S. citizen, Ronnie received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto in 2002. He was also made an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada in 2014.

One fact that has not been mentioned in the many obituaries to Ronnie is that he once owned a 1968 Citroën Dyane. According to the registration (now in the possession of Mony Sora who now owns the car) Ronnie drove it up until 1976.

We believe at that point it was purchased by Dave Kane (as we found the Dyane’s registration and the sign over portion of it in Dave Kane’s records when he passed away). We do know that Dave had the car for a long time and while he lived on Yonge St. in Richmond Hill, ON, it appears he started a blue paint job on the originally white car. Like most of Dave’s work on his Citroëns, things got started but not completed.

Eventually the Dyane ended up in a barn on a property that Dave co-owned in Picton, ON.

It was rescued in May 2020 and moved to Mony’s home near Beaverton ON, where Mony plans to be a bit more productive than Dave and get it back on the road.

We had hoped to do an interview with Ronnie about his time with the Dyane, but alas he had been ill for some time and the opportunity has now been lost.

The Citroën community in Canada, is happy to see the Dyane survive, and somehow we think that Ronnie would be rather pleased as well.