John William McKenna

John William McKenna, born April 10, 1951, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, passed away in the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, on July 9, 2025, at age 74.

John grew up in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and was the son of the late John Lester and Rose (Madden) McKenna.

John was a talented classical guitarist, who loved to learn and play every kind of music. In his younger days, he won first prize at an Dalhousie Arts Festival in Nova Scotia and, for a time, he also played with a Caribbean band, as well as playing in restaurants in Halifax, Calgary and Edmonton. In his teen years, John paddled with both Banook and Mic Mac (Mi'Kmaq) Canoe Clubs in Dartmouth and traveled to several Canadian provinces to compete in canoe races. He was also a lover of good books, and became a big fan of Louis L'Amour due to his grandfather, Claude. He loved playing checkers and chess anywhere he could find someone to play with. John also loved to travel and spent time in the south of France, Mexico, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton but, at the same time, he always very much missed his native Nova Scotia.

John was a quiet and kind man and a loyal friend.

John will be sadly missed by his surviving sisters, Leslie (Andy), Halifax; Judy (Gerry McShane), Toronto, and brother, Dave, Dartmouth; nieces, Joanne, Christina and Denise; nephews, Allan and John Jason, a great-niece, Renee, as well as great-nieces and nephews, his brother-in-law, Jacques Robert, and many cousins.

Besides his parents, he was predeceased by his brother, Alan (Porter's Lake, Nova Scotia); his sisters, Carol (Brooklyn, Nova Scotia), Linda (Halifax), and Susan (in childhood); his paternal grandparents, Claude and Beatrice (Crowell) McKenna, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and his maternal grandparents William and Alice (Samson) Madden of Arichat, Nova Scotia.