Flags are flying at half-mast in Tillsonburg today. The town is mourning the passing of Canadian music legend Stompin' Tom Connors, who died yesterday at the age of 77. The Canadian music icon, known best for his "Hockey Song", also helped bring the small town of Tillsonburg to the national spotlight, according to Mayor John Lessif. "I'm amazed at how many people, when I introduce myself as Mayor of Tillsonburg, reference that song. Stompin' Tom, although he probably didn't realize it, was a good ambassador for our town." According to Matthew Scholtz and Anna Bailey, authors of ?Tillsonburg Diary: A Chronological History,? Connors wrote the song while remembering the summers he spent labouring on Tillsonburg area tobacco farms in 1953 and 1954. Lessif says he was at the Toronto Maple Leafs game last night when he heard about Connors' passing. "I was sitting there watching the game, and 'The Hockey Song' comes on, and the lady next to me says 'Did you know Stompin' Tom passed away?', and I said 'You're kidding me.' I was taken aback actually, because he's synonymous with Tillsonburg, you know, that song, and he had visited a number of times for concerts." Lessif says he briefly met Stompin' Tom at his last concert in the town in 2006. He says Connors music was easy to relate to, and he says the "Tillsonburg" song captured some of the town's attributes. "It speaks to hard work. It speaks to rural Ontario. Tillsonburg is connected, was connected and continues to be connected to farmland and tobacco." "He was a storyteller, and he told stories about Canada." Tillsonburg council will commemorate the Canadian music icon at its meeting on Monday night, by playing "Tillsonburg".
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