Beverley Watson of Nowra recalled seeing a young Mr Little at the age of just 10 or 11 up on stage reciting a poem, ‘Life gets tedious, don’t it?’, at Terara Public School.

Even then the young Jimmy stood out.

“He just looked like he had talent,” Ms Watson said.

In the years that followed she remembered often seeing Mr Little with his guitar playing on the steps outside the Roxy Cinema.

After being born at the Cummeragunja mission on the Murray River near Barmah, Mr Little moved to the Shoalhaven as a young boy and lived at Worrigee.

Former Shoalhaven mayor Greg Watson recalled several dwellings on either side of Worrigee Road near Golden Grove and Mr Little living there while attending Terara School.

A few years later, at the age of 17, Mr Little performed at the 21st birthday party of long-time Nowra resident Elaine Hyam in the old CWA rooms, delighting a large number of guests.

During those years Mr Little was travelling between Nowra and Sydney for auditions and performances after appearing on a radio amateur hour at 13.

He said his involvement in music, after being raised in a musical family, was natural but still he wanted to create “a new life different to my dad and granddad”.

His father Jimmy Little Senior was a song and dance man who led a touring vaudeville troupe in the 1930s and 40s.

However Mr Little’s music was different, and a permanent move to Sydney brought a string of hits starting with Danny Boy in 1959 that peaked at number nine in the charts, followed by El Paso that reached number 12.

His biggest hit came with Royal Telephone which reached number one in 1963, making Mr Little the first Aboriginal musician to hit the national top 10.

Many singles, albums and movies followed, in a career that spanned six decades.

However amid all the stardom, Mr Little said one of the highlights of his life was being presented with the key to the city while performing in Nowra in 2000, to accompany the Olympic torch relay.

“This key is better than anything, this tops it all off,” he said at the time.

“This is such a welcome, to come home and to be met by people who knew my mum and my dad and Aunty Jane.

“Being invited home to perform at Nowra’s torch relay celebration was like a dream come true.”

While presenting the key to the city, Cr Watson said it was “a symbol of all the doors that weren’t open to you when you were young”.

But none of that mattered to Mr Little.

“I’ve never asked for a key to a door, I’ve always knocked,” he said in 2000.

“But I am quiet and persistent, and I always believed I would get through those doors, and I did.”

In recent years Mr Little devoted much of his time to improving literacy, education and health among indigenous populations.

He signalled his plans to be more involved in community issues back in 2000, when he told the gathering at the Nowra Showground, “I hope I can be an example to any young men at any age that success in life is worth dreaming about and pursuing.

“I’ve been inspired by Nowra people I grew up with and went to school with.

“Being home here with my family and friends is a joy beyond compare.”

Despite suffering health problems, Mr Little continued performing until last year, when he made his final performance at the Tamworth Country Music Festival after being presented with a lifetime achievement award.

As he stepped from the stage for the final time, Mr Little announced, "Here I am now signing off from the gentle journey of Jimmy Little."

That signing off became permanent on Monday when the entertainer who described himself as “a Nowra boy” died at home in Dubbo, aged 75, after a long illness.

The death sparked an immediate flood of tributes from Australia’s country music royalty, many of whom joined Mr Little during that final performance in January, 2011.