Gordon Lightfoot, a well-known Canadian singer-songwriter and Juno Award winner who became famous in the 1970s for his folk classics died on May 1, 2023, at the age of 84, from natural causes. According to his spokesperson Victoria Lord, he passed away at 7:30 p.m. at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
With songs like If You Could Read My Mind (1970), Sundown (1974), Carefree Highway (1974), and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (1976), Lightfoot was recognized as one of Canada’s most exceptional singer-songwriters. He received the Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003 in addition to being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986.
Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario, on November 17, 1938, to Jessie Vick Trill Lightfoot and Gordon Lightfoot Sr. He studied music at the University of Toronto before moving to Los Angeles to study jazz composition.
Gordon Lightfoot Died Naturally
Gordon Lightfoot died naturally on Monday evening, May 1, 2023, at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, as previously indicated.
Prior to his death, the Canadian singer-songwriter began experiencing health problems in 2002. During a concert in Orillia in September 2002, he experienced severe stomach pain and required emergency vascular surgery to repair a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He also spent 6 weeks in a coma and had four medical procedures. He had a follow-up surgery the following year to continue treatment for his condition.
He suffered a minor stroke in September 2006, preventing him from utilizing his right hand’s middle and ring fingers. He resumed performing after 9 days and hired a backup guitarist for demanding guitar work until his full recovery months later.
Four years later, it was alleged that Canadian reporter David Akin announced Lightfoot’s death on Twitter and Facebook. However, while driving home from seeing a dentist and listening to the news on the radio, the singer-songwriter dispelled the rumors in a phone interview with Charles Adler of the same radio station where he heard the news.
His 2019 tour was interrupted when he was injured while working out in a gym.
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Gordon Lightfoot Is Survived By His Third Wife, Kim Hasse, As Well As His Six Children And Grandchildren
Lightfoot was married three times during his life. In April 1963, he married Brita Ingegerd Olaisson of Sweden, with whom he had two children, Fred and Ingrid, before divorcing a decade later.
He married Elizabeth Moon in 1989 and had two children, Miles and Meredith, before divorcing in 2011. They were apart for 9 years before the divorce was finalized.
Gordon married his third wife, Kim Hasse, in December 2014, and she remained his wife until his death, however, they had no children together. In addition, he has two more children from relationships he had between his first and second marriages, Gaylen McGee and Eric Lightfoot.
He also had several grandchildren.
