Stompin' Tom Connors
| Stompin' Tom Connors | |
|---|---|
Connors in 2002
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Charles Thomas Connors |
| Also known as | Tommy Messer |
| Born |
February 9, 1936 Saint John, New Brunswick |
| Origin | Timmins, Ontario |
| Died | March 6, 2013 (aged 77) Ballinafad, Ontario |
| Genres | Canadiana, Folk, country |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1964–1978, 1988–2013 |
| Labels | EMI, Boot, Rebel, Dominion, Cynda, ACT |
| Website | www |
Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was a Canadian country and folk singer-songwriter. Focusing his career exclusively on his native Canada, Connors is credited with writing more than 300 songs and has released four dozen albums, with total sales of nearly 4 million copies.
His songs have become part of the Canadian cultural landscape. Three of his best-known songs, Sudbury Saturday Night, Bud the Spud and The Hockey Song, are played at various games throughout the National Hockey League; the latter is played at every Toronto Maple Leafs home game.
He was born Charles Thomas Connors in Saint John, New Brunswick to the teenaged Isabel Connors and her boyfriend Thomas Joseph Sullivan at midnight, February 9, 1936 at the General Hospital in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Isabel's family were Protestant, and his maternal grandfather, John Connors, was a sea captain from Boston, Massachusetts who had died before Stompin' Tom was born. Stompin' Tom's father was a Catholic of Irish and French ancestry, and "may have been Métis or ... Micmac." Isabel Connors and Thomas Joseph Sullivan didn't wed until 30 years later, probably because Sullivan's family were devout Catholics and didn't want him marrying a Protestant; they later divorced. Sullivan's mother gave him $10, and was told to leave home. Connors was also cousin of New Brunswick fiddling sensation, Ned Landry.
Connors' first home was on St. Patrick Street in Saint John, in the "poorest and most rundown part of Saint John". He lived there with his mother, his maternal grandmother, Lucy Scribner and his maternal step grandfather, Joe Scribner When Connors was three, Lucy and Joe died within weeks of each other. This forced his mother, Isabel to move to a two-bedroom apartment. Around this time Isabel got pregnant again by Tom's father, when he returned briefly. It was at this time that Tom got a taste of hitch-hiking when he and Isabel went to visit relatives in Tusket Falls, Nova Scotia, and on this trip he got his first taste of his mother stealing to feed the two of them, when she stole food from a Chinese restaurant in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. When they returned to Saint John, they moved in with a family who had been friends of Tom's mother. At this time, Isabel gave birth to Tom's sister, Marie, who had to stay in hospital to have a birthmark removed. Later, Isabel and Tom moved in with her new boyfriend, Terrence Messer at the corner of Clarence and Erin Streets. While they did not marry, the family would take on his surname. Terrence and Isabel had to pretend to be married at the time to find a place to live, due to moral standards of the time. The family was quite poor, and Terrence was a neglectful step-father, who spent most of the family's money on wine. When they missed paying rent, the family was evicted and moved to a house on St. Patrick Street. At this time, Marie finally came home from the hospital. However, she died when Tom was four, following more surgery to remove another birthmark. To make ends meet, Isabel got a job scrubbing floors, while Terrence did odd jobs. Following a spat with the landlord (when Tom started a fire in their apartment), the family would once again be evicted. The family's next home would be on King Street East, in a basement apartment.
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