ALSTON, Mich. - Mike E. Grannis, 61, died peacefully in his home on July 2, 2012, after a long illness. He was the husband of Denise Vandeville, and the father of Levi Vandeville Grannis.
Born in Oneida, N.Y., in 1950, he was the son of William and Ruth (Kast) Grannis, both deceased. Mike worked and lived all over North America, from repairing trains in Alaska to custom fabrication in Arizona, before settling in Alston with his family, in 1996.
Mike and Denise had been married 18 years, and spent their time traveling, restoring the homestead, and enjoying the woods that surrounds it. Mike was the quality control manager for Pettibone in Baraga, for a majority of the years he lived in the Keweenaw Peninsula. He reveled and excelled in anything mechanical, helping many neighbors and building everything from bicycles with tiller engines to pulling tractors. His last unfinished project, which he worked on up until a week before he was bed ridden, was a 1927 Model T Coupe that he was reconstructing with Levi.
Surviving with his wife and son are two sisters, Susan Messegee of Winston Mo., and Carol Nettles of Las Vegas, N.V.; as well as parents-in-law, Nancy and Porky Hansen of Gladstone, John and Kirsten Vandeville of Rapid River; and brother-in-law, John M. Vandeville.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend a celebration of Mike's life on his birthday, Monday, July 9, from 6 to 8 p.m., (the encomium starting at 7) at the Laird Township Hall, Alston Avenue in Alston, Mich.