“The first twelve years of my life I lived on the second floor of the funeral home R. S. Kane started by my parents Robert Simpson and Gwendolyn Kane in 1950 in a former residence at the northwest corner of Yonge and Sheppard,” John Kane told me recently. “Dempsey’s hardware store was our neighbour.
“The facility was on the main floor, my parents, myself, and my siblings lived on the second floor, and my grandparents in the attic. There was one bathroom and one bathtub.” Born in 1951, John is the eldest of Robert and Gwendolyn’ seven children.
Gwendolyn ran the business during the early years with Robert working at a downtown funeral home to bring in extra money. “She was remarkable,” John says. “She managed both the family and the business. She went to school and got a funeral director’s licence, the only woman in her class. She served tea in China cups with cookies to people who came for visitations.”
“North York’s population was young couples and their children in 1950 and Kane’s only had twelve funeral services in 1950. Knowing that another source of income was essential my parents started a second business Kane’s Ambulance Service in 1953. The ambulances were equipped with an oxygen supply and stretcher and sometimes a hot water bottle to warm the feet. The charge was fifteen dollars but was waived if people couldn’t afford it. The cars went as far as Northern Ontario. The service ran until 1973.”
In 1985 Robert and Gwendolyn oved their funeral home business into a larger facility they had built at 6150 Yonge.
At the fiftieth anniversary celebration of their marriage and their creation of their business longtime North York Historical Society member and North York historian Jeanne Hopkins gave the keynote address. Nearly two hundred people attended.
John ran the business from 2000 to 2019 when he sold it to Jerrett Funeral Homes. The merged firm operates under the name Kane-Jerrett Funeral Homes and is part of the Dignity Memorial chain. John acts as “consultant.” He washes and polishes cars, cleans the facilities, and conducts many funeral services.
