SOUTH PORTLAND – Living in the area for nine decades, Ernie Smith made many acquaintances.

And he couldn’t go anywhere without running into one of them.

“It just seemed like everywhere you went, he knew somebody,” said Karen Krenke, one of his three daughters.

Mr. Smith, a Portland native and longtime South Portland resident, died Friday at age 91. “He will be missed by a lot of people,” his daughter said.

Mr. Smith got to know people through his career in the U.S. Postal Service. After spending many years sorting mail, he retired as the carrier for a route in Falmouth. Then he began another career.

After offering to help out his son-in-law’s family at their funeral home for a day, he spent 25 years as an attendant there.

“He enjoyed the people,” said his daughter Roberta Hutchins, whose husband’s family owned the Hutchins Funeral Home on William Street in Portland.

His daughters said their father would start a conversation with anyone. He particularly enjoyed connecting with other veterans of World War II, during which he served in the Army.

After his wife, Margaret, died in 1999, he joined a widowers group that would get together and go out to eat. Mr. Smith, who still drove a car, met with members of the group for breakfast on the day he died.

In recent years, he also took his interest in meeting new people to the Internet. “Basically, he became a Facebook junkie,” Krenke said.

She posted a status update on his profile letting his Facebook friends know that he had died. About 50 people responded, she said.

Mr. Smith loved to travel, Krenke said. He and his wife made frequent trips to Alabama and Newfoundland to visit relatives.

Closer to home, he liked going to the lighthouses in the area, including those at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth and Spring Point in South Portland.

Besides his outgoing and friendly nature, Mr. Smith’s most marked quality was his independence, his family said.

“He did what he wanted to do until the very end,” said his son-in-law Jonathan Hodgdon.

Staff Writer Leslie Bridgers can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:

lbridgers@pressherald.com