The funeral for former Barrie mayor Willard Kinzie was full of storytelling, which was very fitting seeing as Kinzie was one of the best at telling them.
About 200 people, including family, friends and both current and former city council members, filled the sanctuary at First Baptist Church in Barrie today for Kinzie’s funeral.
Kinzie, who served as mayor from 1957 until 1961 and has the designation of being the city’s first mayor, beginning in 1959, died on Sunday, Nov. 25. He was 99 years old.
Kinzie’s tan oak casket was surrounded by colourful floral arrangements, including daisies, orchids and carnations.
Pastor Edwin Smart presided over the service, which began with the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness and included several of Mr. Kinzie’s favourite songs, as well as a scripture reading by his granddaughter, Carolyn Kinzie Mowatt.
“As a man of faith, he is where he knew he would be one day. He’s home in heaven with Jesus,” said Smart, who also acknowledged Kinzie’s long-standing involvement with Emmanuel Baptist Church.
Kinzie’s son, Bob Kinzie, opened the family tributes.
“Dad was a lot of different things to a lot of different people and he accomplished a lot, as you all know,” he said. “One of the things, though, that I think made him stand out … was he was a storyteller. He was a really good storyteller.”
Bob Kinzie said it wasn’t just the story, but an ability to pull together solutions to problems, whether it was relationships or how to get elected to council.
“It was all a story to him and he loved it. Storytellers are kind of the centre of society, in some way," he said.
Mr. Kinzie relayed life lessons in story form, said his son, who remembers as a child his father telling the bedtime tale of pirate Long John Silver.
“We’re sitting there on the edge of our seats… and then he’d tell us it was time to go to sleep,” Kinzie said to a rumble of laughter inside the church. “The son of a gun wouldn’t tell us the end of the story!”
The kids would have to wait until the next time their father was assigned bedtime duty.
Kinzie said his father also loved his Saturday morning comics around the breakfast table.
“He devoured them. His weight of wisdom was through comics,” Bob Kinzie said, adding his father would disappear behind the newspaper. “He’d be chuckling away and then the chuckle would become bigger somehow.”
Mr. Kinzie would begin to regale the children with tales of how Dagwood and Blondie were having problems.
“Dad was laughing his head off. There’d be tears rolling down his cheeks, the paper fluttering all over Mom’s bacon and eggs," he said. "Pretty soon there would be tears rolling down our cheeks, even if we didn’t know what was wrong with Dagwood and Blondie.
"But watching him tell that story just sort of sucked you in and made it worthwhile being there.”
Mr. Kinzie would also bring home council stories.
“We had more fun at the expense of the city of Barrie… the city of Barrie didn’t know this,” Bob Kinzie said. “There were always challenges, there was always some villain on council. And we know there aren’t that many villains today. Dad knew every one of them and he knew how to get the better of them.”
Bob Kinzie said he’ll always fondly recall his father’s laugh.
“It was an amazing kind of laugh, because it would just roll over you,” he said. “It would grab your imagination somehow and you’d start to laugh … and my poor mother didn’t really laugh out loud, but you kind of had a sense that she was amused.”
Rachael Kimola, who spoke on behalf of Mr. Kinzie’s grandchildren, said it was hard to choose just one anecdote about her grandfather.
“Grandpa had such an endless selection of stories to choose from,” she said, whether it included his many mountain-climbing trips to meeting the Queen or being good friends with KFC's Colonel Saunders. “Any one of these things for an average person would be a singular accomplishment in their life and Grandpa had an endless supply of such accomplishments.
“I always thought that tied in well with the fact Grandpa was a little bit of a self-promoter,” Kimola said.
Many times throughout the year, Kimola said family members would get manila envelopes from him that were filled with newspaper clippings on his latest exploits.
“Every single time Grandpa was mentioned in the local papers, he would go out a gather a stack of newspapers, clip out the article and send them to his family,” she said. “I don’t know about the rest of my cousins, but I personally have a pile of manila envelopes and it’s about four inches thick.”
Kimola then read one of Mr. Kinzie’s heart-felt annual Christmas newsletters, which were typically a one- or two-page recap of the year on inexpensive paper. His sign-off was, ‘With love to you all ... Dad, Grandpa, Willard’.
Also among those in attendance at Monday's funeral were Mayor Jeff Lehman, former mayor Dave Aspden, former city councillor Arif Khan, incoming councillors Keenan Aylwin and Clare Riepma, as well as City of Barrie CAO Michael Prowse.
In an almost kismet way, Kinzie’s funeral was held the same day as the next city council will be sworn in. Mr. Kinzie often attended many council inaugurations, where he would share his wisdom on how to lead.
Lehman, wearing the chain of office, spoke on behalf of the city and council.
“I’m wearing this chain today because Willard’s name is the first name on it,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s Willard’s chain; all of us since have just been taking care of it for him.”
Lehman said Mr. Kinzie “was a legend in our city, a legend that only grew over the years.
“It’s not because the story got better; it’s because Willard kept adding to it,” the mayor said. “He kept doing things worthy of legend.”
Lehman said Mr. Kinzie’s enthusiasm and zest for life were “completely contagious,” and Barrie also continues to embody his entrepreneurial spirit.
The mayor also recounted a story where Mr. Kinzie was invited to the council inauguration in 2010 where he “stole the show” by famously telling councillors to “be bold” and work toward what you believe in.
“In one of the amazing coincidences that the universe brings us, we’re remembering Willard on the same night that a new city council is being inaugurated,” he said, adding Mr. Kinzie’s is a legacy of integrity.
“Willard, you lived a remarkable life and lived it very well indeed. You’ve earned your rest, sleep well, my friend.”
