So much that the day after he died The Mariners Church in Detroit honored him by ringing it’s bell 30 times. 29 for the men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald and one for Gordon.
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True story of total serendipity… I was at the AIST steel show in Detroit May 8-11, 2023. Lightfoot died on May 1. The Old Mariners’ Church is just a couple of blocks from the Huntington Place convention center so about ¼ mile away on W Jefferson Ave. On the last day there, I was attending a hospitality reception and was chatting with someone who happened to mention that she heard that Lightfoot had died. I asked her if she knew the song about the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. She said yes. I asked if she remembered the verse about tolling the bell 29 times. She said yes… I said, “well.. if you take a 5 minute walk down Jefferson, you’ll see a church on the right side and the other day they rang the bell there 29 times and then they added one ring… the last ring was for Lightfoot.” She was blown away…