Birth Born on October 01, 1939 in Yarmouth, Cumberland Co., ME Death Died on May 16, 2020 in Holden, Penobscot Co., ME Buried in Walnut Hill Cemetery in North Yarmouth, Cumberland Co., ME Marriages MYERS, Margaret Ann Married on June 18, 1993 in Maine, USA Notes Occupation: Insurance Claims Adjuster Military Service: U S A F Death: Cancer Obituary: BANGOR '96 Gray Edwin Leighton, 80, a resident of Holden, went to God on May 16, 2020 after recently being diagnosed with cancer. He was born in Yarmouth on Oct. 1, 1939 to Edwin Gray Leighton, a poultry farmer, and Nellie Winifred (Smith) a schoolteacher. His youth was spent in Walnut Hill, North Yarmouth, surrounded by a large, close family. He attended North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth, Maine (1958) and the University of Maine, Portland and Orono (1962) where he received a bachelor's degree in History and Political Science. After graduating, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Michigan. When his military service was complete, he returned to Maine and began a career working in the insurance field. He became a father in 1974 and 1976, when his son, Edwin and daughter, Angela were born. In 1990, a romance was rekindled with his former high school love, Meg Myers Hikel, a widow with four children. They married in 1993. He was a loving surrogate father to Meg's children. Automobiles were a thread through his life, first, assembling model car kits as a child, then working on cars in his parents' dooryard, and drag racing on backroads. He shared his passion with son Eddie. They went all over New England and to Canada to watch car racing events. Driving on the road as an insurance claims adjuster, in a company car, he was always equipped with a polaroid camera, tape recorder, and a large Igloo cooler filled with casefiles, because a briefcase was just not big enough. On the way to work, he would often stop at Cole Farms, for coffee and French toast, adding about a pound of butter on top, probably applied with a half crooked knowing smile. As a teenager, his preferred car brand was Chevy. This preference and his sense of humor were displayed when he rearranged the "FORD" letters on his father's truck to spell DORF. He excelled at drawing when he was young, and as an adult he had a shop in New Gloucester where he crafted hand lettered signs. He appreciated the beauty of nature and spending time out in the woods. He enjoyed deer hunting and had a relaxed way of settling in against a tree stump, casually eating M&Ms and waiting for a deer. He was preceded in death by his parents; and his sister, Linda Leighton Laibinis. Portland Press Herald Portland,ME May 31, 2020. Sources Newspaper Obituary: Portland Press Herald Portland,ME Obituary May 31, 2020. Images Gray Leighton