Fans to pay respects at Gordon Lightfoot public visitation today in Orillia
Posted May 7, 2023 3:00 am.
Fans of late folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot will have an opportunity to pay their respects in his hometown of Orillia today.
A public visitation will be held for the musician from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s United Church.
Lightfoot died on Monday at age 84 and tributes have been pouring in from around the world ever since.
The performer was known for his poetic and poignant lyrics on songs such as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “If You Could Read My Mind.”
After Lightfoot’s death, Orillia residents began placing flowers on two monuments to the singer in the city.
Lightfoot’s family says messages of condolence can be left at mundellfuneralhome.com, where service details are posted.
A book of condolences can also be signed at Toronto’s Massey Hall, a venue where Lightfoot frequently performed throughout his career. It will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Lightfoot’s private funeral will take place at a later date in Orillia where he will be buried alongside his parents.
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A generation of old friends, longtime couples and families raised on Gordon Lightfoot gathered Saturday night to mark the passing of the Canadian musician.
By sheer coincidence – or as some suggested, a case of mournful serendipity – a concert planned months ago as a tribute to Lightfoot as a living legend wound up being a celebration of a life well-lived.
For Chicago residents Jan Goldsmith and her grown son Rick Goldsmith, saying goodbye was essential. The two flew into Canada earlier Saturday and travelled to Orillia for the concert with plans to attend Lightfoot’s public visitation on Sunday.
“I’ve been listening to Gordon since (my mom) introduced me as a kid … and he’s been a part of my life almost on a daily basis since,” said Rick.
“We had to be here.”
The Goldsmiths described a mixture of sadness and joy that ran throughout “Early Morning Rain: The Legend of Gordon Lightfoot,” a musical retrospective held at the Orillia Opera House, inside the 677-seat Gordon Lightfoot Auditorium.
It was a venue where the musician performed many times before. And staff shared stories of how Lightfoot was known to wander to the theatre whenever he was in town.
On stage, Leisa Way & the Wayward Wind Band shared their own tales of Lightfoot’s legacy by leading the audience through a loose chronological recounting of his career, starting with songs from his time as an Orillia boy.
Their openers included a rendition of “We Come Here to Sing,” recorded when he was in the early 1960s duo the Two Tones followed by an interpretation of the lyrics to “The Hula Hoop Song,” a commercial jingle he wrote as a teenager.
As the show progressed, more beloved Lightfoot hits surfaced.
Guests await the Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind Band performing a sold-out memorial concert for Gordon Lightfoot at the Opera House, in Orillia, Ont., Saturday, May 6, 2023. The show, titled “Early Morning Rain: The Legend of Gordon Lightfoot”, served as a celebration of life after the famed musician died May 1st at the age of 84. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Drost
A warm take on “Steel Rail Blues,” with the full band at centre stage, led to Way’s upbeat solo of “If You Could Read My Mind.” Other favourites “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown” and “Early Morning Rain” closed out the show.
For a room largely comprised of people who grew up on Lightfoot – many of them little more than a decade his junior – it was a night of healing.
Chris Robbins, who came to the show with her husband and an entourage of friends, said she was there to celebrate Lightfoot’s work.
“He touched the core of the country from coast-to-coast,” she said outside the venue.
“It’s a sold-out show, that’s perfect,” she added. “He usually did that.”
Duncan McDonald, an Orillia resident, brought his wife along in hopes of sharing a room with like-minded music fans.
“I want to be here to honour him; listen to the music; grieve a little bit; and sing a little,” he said.
McDonald anticipated a night with “a lot of tears, a lot of laughter, a lot of joy and a lot of mourning for a time that’s passed.”
The gathering was also one of kindness, as Lightfoot fans Will and Zenith Andrews discovered. The couple got married in the Philippines seven years ago, and Will sang Lightfoot’s “Beautiful” to his wife as she walked down the aisle.
On Saturday afternoon, they made a split decision to travel 90 minutes from Whitby, Ont., to Orillia without concert tickets, simply to see off Lightfoot in any meaningful way they could.
“We came here tonight because we wanted to see the statue,” explained Will, standing outside the opera house.
A few minutes later, the couple found themselves on the winning end of free tickets. Two separate concertgoers heard they were ticketless and handed them spares. After the show, they were beaming.
