Danny McCall, who died earlier this month aged 87, had three great loves in his life - his family, horse racing and selling ice cream. 

Danny, of Woodside Avenue, Cockermouth, worked for Luchini's of Keswick for over 50 years and was one of the best known faces in West Cumbria. 

Tony Luchini says his own father taught him everything about making ice cream but Mr McCall taught him everything about selling it. 

He said: "He was a legend. What he could sell was incredible. Ice cream is seasonal but he still used to go out in his van on a Sunday in the winter. 

"In his prime, between Whitehaven and Cockermouth, he could sell 11 or 12 gallons of ice cream even if it was freezing cold, in his old, unheated Bedford van. 

"If you compare that to these days when even on a scorching hot summer's day you rarely sell more than six or seven gallons it's even more remarkable. 

"He retired 15 years ago. He was in his 70s. He wanted to carry on but he knew he couldn't and even after he'd stopped working people never stopped asking us about him. 

"He worked at the steelworks as well, for a while. He'd drive to work in the ice cream van, do his work there, sell ice cream to the other workers at lunch and tea time and then he'd be out selling in the evening." 

Tony said Mr McCall had a wealth of stories to tell that they never tired of hearing. 

He said: "Whenever we were driving to the races, whether it was Carlisle or all the way to Cheltenham, he'd be telling us about things he'd done or had happened to him and the time just went. You'd think you'd only been travelling for a short time. 

"People took to him straight away, whoever they were. There was one time we were checking in to a hotel in Cheltenham and I looked around to see Danny chatting to the great racing commentator Peter O'Sullevan.

"There he was with his overnight bag in one hand and a Robinson's bread bag holding his shaving gear in the other. They spent the whole evening chatting in the bar as well. You couldn't help but like him." 

Racing was the only sport Mr McCall took an interest in or knew about. One time when they were at Carlisle races queuing for a cup of tea Tony spotted Kevin Keegan and Emlyn Hughes in front of them. 

"Keegan was captain of Liverpool and England at the time. I said to Danny 'There's Kevin Keegan and Emlyn Hughes over there'. He said 'Oh, is he a jockey?'. 

"He adored his family and used to take them to Blackpool every year for a week.

"There was one time when he had lost all his money on the horses and there was the family waiting to go away.

"He wasn't going to let them miss their annual trip so he 'borrowed' a couple of huge bearings from the steelworks and sold them for scrap. The works had to close down for 24 hours. 

"The police came to see him and said 'Come on Danny we know it was you'. He denied it and denied it until they told him they'd found the bearings wrapped in a page from Sporting Life with his name written at the top. 

"I can't praise him enough. After my dad died he was like a second father to me. Everyone loved him." 

Mr McCall leaves two daughters, Yvonne and Denise.