1924 – 2003

TOGUS – Emile A. Carrier, 78, of 105 Kimball Ave., Mexico, died Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the Veterans Hospital where he had been a patient for three days.

He was born Nov. 21, 1924, in Mexico the son of Philip and Bertha Couture Carrier. A resident of this community all of his life, he was a communicant of St. Theresa’s Church and attended St. John’s School.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Corporal in the South Pacific and was in the battle at Okinawa. He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Rumford Lodge 1248 and the Napoleon Ouellette Post 24 of the American Legion.

For more than 20 years he owned and operated the family dairy farm. He was awarded the Outstanding Young Farmer Award from the Maine Jaycees and by the United States Chamber of Commerce. “In recognition of his ability in agriculture and for contributions made to the community.” In 1953 he had the highest producing Ayrshire cow in the state, over 305 days the cow produced 17,000 pounds of milk and 701 pounds of butterfat.

For more than 28 years he worked as a deputy sheriff for the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department. As a deputy sheriff, he built an impressive record of solving more than 80 percent of his cases.

Any words put on paper about his life cannot capture his essence, the rolling laughs that come with the funny stories about the old days, his gravelly voice that would be better suited for tales around a campfire, the hands gnarled and roughened from the years of hard work.

He was an avid sports fan and a great Red Sox fan. He enjoyed his friends especially JP and his social life.

Survivors include four daughters, Jeanne Carrier of Anchorage, Alaska, Patricia and her husband Peter Perry of Rumford, Denise Chessie of Dixfield and Cheryl Ann Childs of Kennebunk; four sons, Gerald and his wife Eleanor of Kansas City, Mo., Philip and Elaine of Dixfield, Denis and Marcel and his wife Melissa all of Rumford; a sister, Mrs. Jude (Gisele) Tanguay of Brunswick; 12 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.