Cyril Thomas Brown, better known as Sonny Brown, was remembered as a survivor of the Stolen Generation, an ace fisherman, renowned soccer player, a stalwart of the Coomaditchie Mission community, a father and a father figure to many.

Most of all, he was celebrated as a one half of an enduring love story that began near Bomaderry train station more than 50 years ago.

Mr Brown - then a fledgling train driver - spotted a young Lorraine and her cousins on the railway bridge, the group of teens "just sitting there eating bush lemons and salt, waving to all the passengers on the train".

"And he'd blow the train horn," said Mrs Brown, whose words were delivered at Monday's funeral service by Donna Castagna.

"Little did I know, that man would soon be the love of my life: my sunshine.

"I said, 'when I grow up, I'm gonna marry a black man. And he must be black and strong, like I like my cuppa! He has to be able to stroke a guitar'.

"And he [Sonny] certainly was a strong, black man, and definitely knew how to play that guitar."

Mrs Brown told mourners her husband was "fit as a fiddle when I met him" - and would attract admiration wherever he went due to his sporting prowess.

"They say true love never runs smooth, and that was us," she said.

"But in all our time, Sonny never swore at me or called me names. He always respected me as a person and a woman and as his woman.

"To my precious: I put my wedding ring back on your finger and told you, 'it'd better be there when I get up there, because you are mine forever and I'll be loving you always, my sunshine'."

Mr Brown died on January 17, aged 72.

Mourners heard he was born in Kempsey and lived on the Burnt Bridge Mission before moving to Sydney, then Port Kembla in 1957. Racism drove him out of Port Kembla Public School and he attended Kemblawarra Public School until around age 10, when he was removed from his home.

"Uncle Sonny was taken from his family to Yasmar Home for Boys, and became part of what we all know now to be the Stolen Generation," Shannon Carlson, Mr Brown's nephew, told Monday's funeral service.

"He would eventually be returned home after a 3-4 year period, but was never the same as a result of that."

He threw himself into his sporting loves - soccer and cricket, and at 15 was asked to travel to England to try [out] for Liverpool FC.

"But he declined to go out of fear of missing his family, and also Nan not wanting him to leave," Mr Carlson said.

On local soccer fields, he became known for his toughness, speed, understanding of the game and mentoring skills.

"Uncle Sonny was first Aboriginal player to play for Warrawong Soccer Club, where he made friends for life, and also inspired, and paved the way for his brothers to follow," Mr Carlson said.

Mr Brown spent part of his childhood living in the so-called "sugar bag shacks" formed by Aboriginal communities in the sand hills at Port Kembla. The camp of makeshift shelters formed after war broke out and the army commandeered the community's earlier homes at Hill 60 for strategic purposes. The sand shelters preceded the small weatherboard homes that made up the first version of Coomaditchie Mission.

In a video interview played at Monday's service, Mr Brown said the sand hills were "just like being in Arabia, I suppose. Or out in the deserts of Africa. They were big sand hills".

Pastor James Duggan told Monday's service Mr Brown was a man of God who believed in unity and forgiveness.

"He was 'unity' with many nationalities, and that's why he was so loved, not [only] by the Aboriginal people, but all nationalities," he said.