SKOWHEGAN — More than 20 big-rig logging trucks led a funeral procession Thursday afternoon to honor the life of longtime truck driver Maxell C. “Mackie” Moore.
Moore, who was also a school bus driver and race car driver, died April 27 in Skowhegan. He was 72.
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Truckers from around the state gathered just after 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the former Solon Manufacturing on Island Avenue, next to the Federated Church where the funeral was held.
“Me, Matt and Mackie are going to give Mackie his last ride in his truck — we’ll have his ashes in the truck with us,” Tim Clements, 23, of Skowhegan, said.
Clements is the best friend of Matt, Moore’s youngest son, and an “honorary” son to Moore, who raised five sons and three daughters with Robin, his wife of 29 years.
“His parents and Matt, they all took me in just like their own family members, like one of their kids,” Clements said. “I was probably seven or eight years old. He was a real good guy; open arms, big heart — he’d do anything for you.”
During part of his working life, he was a school bus driver and mechanic for Skowhegan-based School Administrative District 54. He competed in many school bus rodeos, where he won trophies for best driver.
For the last 20 years, Moore drove pulp trucks, first with his brother Billy, and then later for T.R. Dillon of Anson, according to his obituary.
Matt Moore now drives the truck he and his father bought together for their business, M.C. Moore Trucking.
Dozens of friends and family members spilled out onto the front steps of the church after the service as the trucks fired up their motors and headed up U.S. Route 201 for a reception at the PACE union hall outside of town.
“Everybody in the logging industry and the trucking industry knows Mackie well,” trucker Lincoln Stone of Dixfield said before driving in the procession. “He’s been in it a long, long time so everybody knows who he is. We’re just going to follow the church procession — out of respect. It’s all respect.”
Trucker Roger Fitch of Strong said he knew Moore for 30 years.
“He was crazy — he was pretty good,” Fitch said. “He was driving, hauling wood with his own truck. He’d be the first one there in the morning, show all them young fellas who would all show up 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning; Mack would be in there at 1 o’clock in the morning, be there and gone.”
Moore’s ashes are to buried at a later date in his hometown of Anson.
Doug Harlow — 474-9534
dharlow@centralmaine.com
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