On Tuesday, January 31, 2023, Vernon Joseph Grantham (Vern, Vernie, Mickey), beloved husband and father, passed away in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the age of 81. Born in 1941 in Halifax to parents Roy and Catherine (Dean), he grew up in a loving family with nine brothers and sisters.
On most summer days from the day he could swing a stick Vern played baseball with neighborhood friends after breakfast until sunset in Point Pleasant Park a short walk from his family’s modest home on Faye’s Lane, a tiny unaffluent corner inside the prosperous Halifax South End. He smote baseballs beyond reasonable fetching distance on Halifax Commons for the champion Halifax Royal Midgets in 1957, and in 1959 he became Halifax Junior Baseball batting champ with his .523 batting average. He was nick-named “Mickey” after Mickey Mantle. He played softball and fastball until age 45.
Vern played hockey and football for St. Pat’s High School, helping the teams win provincial championships in the 1950s, and he later played hockey with the Halifax Kingfishers Maritime Junior A champs.
Vern enjoyed fishing and hunting with his father and brothers at rivers, lakes and forests in Nova Scotia.
As a teenager, Vern’s favorite TV show was Have Gun, Will Travel with a lead character, Paladin, who had a code of honor and who strove to uphold justice and do good.
When Vern was twelve years old, his brother Ed gifted him a guitar, and he learned to play Country & Western listening to the Saturday Night Radio Show. In grade 9, wearing a cowboy hat, black suit and western necktie he sang and with his guitar played songs such as A Satisfied Mind and City Lights for 1700 people at St. Pat’s High School. From house parties to beach parties across the decades his voice and guitar kept the floor thumpin’ and the people clapping. On some of his trips to Tatamagouche and River John, Vern played guitar with the fiddlers and piano players of the Buckler family. Vern often sang and played for veterans at the Royal Canadian Legion in Port Hawkesbury.
Vern and his friends met his music idol Johnny Cash backstage at the Halifax Forum in 1958 in gratitude for their assistance to his backup band that had become lost in the city. In the summer of 1980, Vern drew cheers from the crowd in Port Hawkesbury’s SAERC auditorium for his singing impersonation of Johnny Cash.
Vern felt the sparks of thrill when he first saw Audrey in 1964 at the Candlelight Lounge on Spring Garden Road, and he introduced himself by procuring her a chair where none had seemed available. She grew to appreciate that he could talk to anyone, anywhere. They were young and there was mutual affection, and they married on a February day in 1965. They adventured in their Volkswagen Buggy to PEI, Boston, Toronto and Montreal, and then started a family.
Vern worked at Nova Scotia Light & Power, the Texaco oil refinery in Dartmouth, Atomic Energy of Canada heavy water plants in Glace Bay and Port Hawkesbury, Port Hawkesbury Nautical School, Halifax Forum, Halifax Metro Center, and most recently he worked as a representative for Glenora Distillery. He was a member of school boards and chaired social clubs.
From 1979 to 1988, Vern played on curling teams with Audrey at the Port Hawkesbury Curling Club.
In retirement in Bedford, Nova Scotia, Vern enjoyed time with family and friends, frequent trips with Audrey around Nova Scotia and to other Canadian provinces and U.S. states, and following companies on public stock markets.
Vern was raised in a by-gone world when men were expected to stand and be serious and stoic, which he did, although those close to him could see how his emotions were affected by his empathy for the misfortune of other people. He often quietly helped people who needed it.
Vern is survived by his wife Audrey, sons Jody, Lenny and Stephen, daughters-in-law Jenny and Joanne, grandchildren Logan, Grace, Amy, Andrew and Jamie, sister Madeline McLeod, and brothers Ed (Shirley) and Tommy (Elaine); sister in law Carol Grantham (Clyde, deceased). Vern was predeceased by his parents Roy and Catherine (Dean), sister Vera, and brothers Lenny, Garnet, Don, Harry, and Clyde.
Vern will be missed by his family and many relatives, his dear friends, and his legions of acquaintances along the way.
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