Former Charmers bar owner Ronald Tindle died Oct. 16 due to complications from spinal surgery and a stroke. He was 87.
Tindle was born May 20, 1937, in Springfield, Missouri and graduated from Ozark High School in 1955. Shortly after graduation, Tindle moved to Chicago where he spent many decades.
Among his early jobs were as a Zenith salesperson and server at Riverside Inn for a local artist named Howard Garrison.
In the late ’80s, Tindle bought the now-defunct bar Charmers in the Rogers Park neighborhood. He owned Charmers for almost 10 years; it had opened in 1929 and was the oldest gay bar in the city. It was known for its small, long and narrow size with Art-deco pieces as decorations. It was ultimately remodeled into a larger Irish bar and now it is called Jarvis Square Tavern. The name Charmers was transferred to a small, nearby shop called Charmers Cafe that currently sells breakfast and lunch items.
Additionally, Tindle was a staffer for Chicago City Council 47th Ward Ald. Gene Schulter as his LGBTQ+ liaison, housing issues and other duties. He was also a security navigator at the Chicago Loop Illinois Supreme Court building.
Tindle met his longtime life partner August Dumcius in 1961 and they were a couple until Dumcius died in 2011. At the time of Dumcius’s death, the couple lived primarily in Belleair Bluffs, Florida, near St. Petersburg. Tindle sold their Chicago and Belleair Bluffs condos and moved back to the Ozarks after Dumcius’s death.
Tindle bought his grandparents’ farm in Sparta, Missouri where he lived until his death. Tindle had chickens, ducks, cats, dogs and alpacas on the farm and installed a pond with fish and a fountain. He also had a full kitchen gazebo to host fish fries.
Among Tindle’s other pursuits were dinner parties and other outings with childhood friends and Chicago- and Florida-based friends, and his appreciation for art. He was very good friends with Pulitzer prize-winning playwright and painter Lanford Wilson (also from Ozark) and owned several of Wilson’s paintings.
Tindle is survived by his niece Joleen Michele (Joel) VanHoose, nephew James (Sheila) Lloyd, five great-nieces and nephews, eight great-great-nephews, one triple-great and many chosen family members and friends.
“My Uncle Buddy was a very generous man who loved his family and friends,” said VanHoose. “He taught me not to worry about what others said, and also be true to myself in every way imaginable. I am forever grateful for his love and direction. I thought that me, a 60-year-old woman, didn’t need any more parenting, but over the past six years, living with him, he taught me a lot. From minor things about farming, plants and animals to larger things like accepting myself as I am and being grateful for the small things in life. He also taught me how to enjoy things. He has left a huge hole in our lives. Everything my husband and I have done on the farm since he died has been so difficult because we built our lives around his dreams. It feels so physically empty on the farm yet his spirit still remains to remind us of him and his legacy. To honor him, we have named the farm Tindle Family Farms and will forever hold him in our hearts.”
Longtime friend Irene Macauley: “An irascible, stubborn, funny, complex and demanding friend, Tindle was always empathetic, generous and the first to lend a helping hand. He relished adventure, loved his animals, and was always ready for partying. He loved to offer praise and encouragement and also had a penchant for mockery, oftentimes clever mockery. In fact, he had a wicked sense of humor. Tindle was a very social animal who made friends easily and sharing those friendships with others.
“With his longtime beloved partner, August, and my husband, Bo, many evenings were spent in the garden of their Early Isle house in Chicago … cocktails in hand. This while three Boston Terriers romped and played nearby. He was a great host and thoroughly enjoyed out-of-town visitors, including three ladies from Ozark. One weekend with the ladies in tow (plus one from Chicago), was to be spent in Key West. On the drive to Fort Myers to catch the ferry, Ron had a running, cursing argument about proper driving directions … with Siri.
“He had carried that organizing tradition of his from Chicago to Florida and back to Missouri after August died. And then to Tindle Farm … his dream home. His later ill health did not deter him from helping his niece and her husband, Joleen and Joel, to run his beloved farm, tooling around in his motorized cart to tend to plants and animals. To the end, he maintained a spirit of adventure and the absurd. One of his last thoughts, it has been reported, was: ‘With age comes the ability to not give a rat’s ass.’”
Longtime friend Tom Heeden: “I met Ron when we were living in the same apartment building in Chicago. He and his husband, August, used to hang out at the pool, and that’s where I got to know them. Ron was very outgoing and fun and was always throwing parties and inviting friends over. You knew if Ron was around, you were going to have fun. Ron and August used to winter in Tampa Bay, Florida. Ron would say to me, ‘You need to come visit us sometime.’ He was constantly inviting me to come to Florida. Finally, I said, ‘You better stop telling me to visit you in Florida because I might actually take you up on your offer and do it.’ One Christmas, I did take Ron up on his offer and I went down to Florida and had a wonderful time seeing them and meeting their friends. Going to visit Ron and August at Christmas became an annual tradition for me—one that I looked forward to every year.
“In fact, when I was looking for a place to retire, I moved down to the Tampa Bay area because I remembered it so fondly from my visits, even though Ron had moved away from there after August died so that he could be with his family and friends that he loved so much in Missouri. It was my visiting him there that I learned of his being known as ‘Uncle Buddy.’ When I would visit in Missouri, and I’d refer to him as Ron, everyone would look at me and ask, ‘who?’
“One thing that I will never forget is Ron’s driving. I suspected that he always wanted to be a NASCAR driver because he loved to drive so fast. He had a big Lincoln in Chicago with a huge engine. When a stoplight would turn green, he would hit the gas, and we would go roaring away, leaving all the other cars behind. Until we came up to the next red light. Then he’d come screeching to a halt until the light would change, and we’d go roaring away again. I always said the way he drove; he could pass anything but a gas station. After he lived in Missouri for a while, he bought a Toyota Prius. On the dashboard was a display that showed when the car was using gas or when it was saving energy by using its battery. Ron was obsessed with saving energy, so he was so gentle on the accelerator that you’d swear he was stepping on an egg.
“Ron was a great friend who brightened the lives of everyone around him. I met many friends through him and traveled with him. My life is much better for having known him, and I will miss him terribly.”
Longtime friend Robert Paul: “Ron Tindle has been an incredible friend of mine for many years. He was one of those rare souls who had the ability to become your best friend during the first 5 minutes you met him. He loved being around people and sharing his sometimes (okay, always) salty wit. But anyone who truly knew him always knew he genuinely loved and deeply cared for all his friends.
“I already miss our fried chicken liver dinners at Rosie Jo’s Cafe, our gin drinks at your little shack on the pond, your vast hordes of flowers, plants and trees and your love of animals—dogs, cats, llamas and black ducks. But perhaps the fondest memories of Ron happened one day as we were sitting in the backyard of his old house (drinking of course) listening to his beautiful waterfall. He got really serious and excited because he said he had the opportunity to purchase a house and partial acreage of his family’s Tindle Farm in Sparta. He emphatically said, ‘I’m going to do it,’ and three weeks later we were helping him move into the farm with his beloved niece and her family. I have never seen him happier than at that time and am so thankful that he had the opportunity to finish his life where he started it. A life lived to its’ fullest, rest well dear friend and give John Reece an extra-long hug from us all. I will always cherish your dear friendship Ron.”
Memorial services will be held Nov. 2 at McCoy Cemetery in Ozark, Missouri.
