Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society pays tribute to Gordon Lightfoot

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society is mourning the death of Gordon Lightfoot, a Canadian folk singer-songwriter whose hit "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" commemorates the 1975 Lake Superior shipwreck.

The society called Lightfoot, who passed away Monday night in a Toronto Hospital, more than just a star. He was was a friend, they said.

"To him, 'Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,' was more than just a hit song he wrote," they said in a post on Facebook. "Gordon truly cared about the families of that tragedy. That was proven in 2015 when he came to Whitefish Point for the 40th anniversary of the sinking … but he came a day early, on November 9th, to meet and talk with the family members … he did not want to be the focus of the day on November 10th, he was that classy."

The song came out in 1976 and recounts the Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking during a severe storm the year before. The ship carried iron ore and was once the biggest to sail the Great Lakes. None of her 29 crew members survived the wreck.

Lightfoot recorded 20 studio albums and hundreds of songs, including "Early Morning Rain," "Carefree Highway" and "Sundown." His work was covered by Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Harry Belafonte and Johnny Cash.

The Edmund Fitzgerald's bell was removed from the wreck and restored by Michigan State University. It is now housed at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and is rung 29 times in an anniversary ceremony each Nov. 10.

"Every time the bell tolls from now on, he will be a part of those 29 chimes," said the society. "Gordon Lightfoot was 84 … rest in peace, friend."

A bell rang at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Mariners Church in Detroit, the "maritime sailors' cathedral" Lightfoot references in the song, 30 times, 29 in memory of the sailors and once for Lightfoot.

Ken Morse, a trustee of the church, said the tribute came together quickly after news of Lightfoot's death, as questions poured in from across the country about how the church would honor his memory.

Lightfoot and the church were forever tied because of the song, Morse said, and Lightfoot visited the church a few times. Bells tolling for the lives lost in the wreck became an annual tradition at Mariners, and the memorial service has evolved to honor the lives of all sailors lost on the Great Lakes.A handful of people huddled outside the church Tuesday to hear the bells ring through a light rain. Afterward, in the church vestibule, a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace."

"That was an act of God," Morse said of the bagpiper, Ian Kushnir, who found out about the ceremony this morning and offered to come over from Windsor to play.

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