MEXICO – Bailey S. “Bill” Kierstead, 64, died Friday, Dec. 23, at his home on Roxbury Road, where he had lived for many years.

He was born during a blackout due to the war in South Portland on March 22, 1941, the son of Ralph and Brenda (Stockbridge) Kierstead. He attended schools in South Portland and served in the U.S. Air Force as an A2c from 1959 to 1962.

He was formerly married to Patricia Gamen and later was married to Sheila Weeks Howard Kierstead, who died in 2003.

A truck driver, mechanic and builder, he worked for Mack Trucks, Foggs Transportation, Fox & Ginn, Jordan Meats, E. W. Noyes & Son, Forest City Chevrolet, Holmes Transportation and S.D. Warren in Westbrook. He was a self-employed builder and owned a snowplowing business in Mexico from 1974 to 1986.

He was a member of the Westbrook Fire Department Engine 3 Co. for 19 years, with 10 years as captain, was a member of the Mexico Fire Department for 12 years and a full-time driver for five years and also drove for the Eustis Fire Department for a short time.

He was a former Rumford BPOE, Snowshoe Club, Gorham Snowgoers and Westbrook FOE. He was a 30-year member of American Legion Post 17 in Portland, life member of the NRA and Maine Sportsman and a member of Rumford Baptist Church. Bill will miss the morning coffee with the guys at Hunts Auto: “Herbie, you’re No. 1 now.”

He enjoyed years of hunting with the guys at camp on Alden Stream, building camp with wife Sheila in 1996 on Jim Pond Twp on the Dead River where they had many great times until she died. The real friends of the family, Lewis Ladd and Areline Thibeau, kept him company through Sheila’s passing. He’ll miss his pets: His dog, BA, went everywhere with him and died in 2003, and he had his cats, Midnight, the cat from hell and Smokey, the old lady.

Survivors include daughter, Theresa Joy, and children, Andrea and Margaret Joy; daughter, Kimberley Jordan and husband, John, and children, Amanda and Josh Jordan; daughter, Cynthia Babb and her husband, Troy, and children, Elizabeth, Adam, Travis and Zeth Horr and Julia; son-in-law, Robert Horr; stepson, Robert Howard and his son, Thomas Howard; stepdaughter-in-law, Lydia McLain, who was like a daughter; and a sister, Tina Young and children, Scott and Greg Ring.

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