Eugene McCarthy
Eugene, 1906 -1985, aged 79
Named after his father, Eugene Vincent, Gene was a tall man who favoured black attire. He pitched baseball, not softball, and was proud of the fact that he had pitched for teams in Manitoba, and had been scouted by American teams when he worked at his Uncle Jim’s farm at Roblin, Manitoba in the Great Depression of the 1930s. There he drove a school “bus”- a covered school wagon with a stove inside in the winter, which was pulled by horses. He returned east at the time of World War II and attended Standard Engineering College in Toronto. He became a toolmaker and worked for years at Massey-Ferguson on King St in Toronto. He lived for years with his sister, Mary, in an apartment above a store on King Street at Spencer, about a mile away from his work. They later moved to Dunn Street, and then to Jamieson Avenue before he retired to the McCarthy farm in 1975.
His niece, Terri Turnbull, said that he had special talents in foretelling the future. He followed the Leafs, and spent the occasional Saturday at the racetrack. I have wonderful memories of him taking me to Leaf games in the 1950s when I was a university student. He was my Godfather and he was always special to me. He was a heavy smoker like many others of his generation. He died in a convalescent hospital near Bethany on Highway 28 after spending two weeks there. He died in 1985, the same year as his sister Mary. He had had problems with his heart for a year.
