Always leave 'em laughing

"I was with him the afternoon before he died and although he was drowsy a lot of the time he gave me a big smile as I came in," Ms Brown said.

"At one point I thought he asked for whisky. I asked him if he wanted one and he retorted 'Certainly not! Gin and tonic!'"

Mr Kennedy died at approximately 4.30am on Wednesday at Kenilworth Gardens from complications arising from pneumonia.

He had lived in the Southern Highlands since 1989 after retiring from public life.

Mr Kennedy first lived on a 100-acre property on Tugalong Road in Canyonleigh before health problems forced him to move elsewhere.

"Graham lived quite happily in Canyonleigh from 1989 until 2003, when he had a bad fall and broke his leg and fractured his skull," Mr Sattler said.

"We organised to buy a townhouse for him in Bendooley Street, Bowral , and arranged for him to have nursing in the house, but eventually he ended up in full-time nursing care at Kenilworth Gardens for the last 10 or 12 months of his life."

Ms Brown said she befriended Kennedy in 1965 when working with him on the Mavis Bramston Show in Melbourne.

"We also worked on Blankety Blanks for a couple of years from Monday to Friday and did a huge amount of shows. We also worked on a series of radio plays that Tony and Gary Reilly worked on called Graham Kennedy's RS Playhouse, which was broadcast on ABC radio," she said.

Ms Brown said she would never forget the first time she met Kennedy.

"We first met at a party in Sydney. My first impression of Graham was that he would rather be anywhere else. On the one hand he was the King of television and on the other, he hated crowds," she said.

"I'd watched and loved his work on TV at that stage and thought he was the funniest man I'd ever seen, but he was also a very private person and very shy."