Alice Fiske Hilliard Billheimer, 85, of Waldoboro, passed away on Jan. 28, 2026 due to complications relating to Parkinson’s disease with Lewy Body Dementia. She is survived by her beloved husband of 64 years, David, and her daughters, Suzanne and Carrie.
Alice was born and grew up in Framingham, Mass., the daughter of Margaret and William Hilliard, graduating from Framingham High School in 1958. She studied music and sociology at Oberlin College in Ohio, where she met Dave in their first semester. They married when both were still in school, and she graduated with an AB in 1962. After college, they first lived in Ohio where their two daughters were born, and later moved to Maine, settling in Tenants Harbor and later moving to Waldoboro. In the Harbor, she opened and ran a thrift store for 18 years, becoming such a well-known fixture in the area that right up until the month before she died, people would greet her in stores saying “You are the lady that ran The Clothes Basket!”
Alice was involved in music all her life. She began playing the piano, and later the organ, as a young girl. She passed her love of the craft on to countless piano students young and old, sang in local choirs (she especially loved the annual Messiah Sing Alongs), and was the adored church organist at the Federated Church in Thomaston for 29 years. She and David made countless friends there, many of whom visited her in hospice at the end.
Books were another huge part of Alice’s life, and she shared her love for reading with her children and grandchildren, and also with myriad close friends she met through the Phantom Friends, a fan group for girls’ series books and other girls’ novels from the ‘30s through the ‘60s. She and Dave traveled all over the country in their Airstream attending and running conferences for the group (including one memorable trip across the country and back with their grandson), and she wrote articles and short stories for their publication. She loved perusing used book stores, garage sales, and thrift stores for just the right books, and amassed a spectacularly large collection of books of all kinds, particularly girls’ series books and books with Maine themes.
Alice was an intelligent, hard-working woman with a keen sense of humor. She brightened her family’s lives with spectacular Christmas mornings, music, book-talk, and laughter. She was known and cherished by family and friends everywhere, and will be especially missed by her husband, Dave; her daughters, Suzanne Amara (Tony) and Carrie Gorman (Mike); grandchildren, Zeben Gorman (Angela), and William, Frederick, and Jane Amara; great-grandchild, Olive Gorman and another on the way.
She also leaves behind siblings, Sarah Graham (Larry DuDavage), Walter Hilliard (Donna), Timothy Hilliard (Cindy Stevens Neff), and Jane Black-Lee Wallace; nieces and nephews, Eric, Dawn, Russell, and Beth Ann; and was predeceased by niece, Laura; and nephew, John.
To honor Alice’s wishes, there will be no funeral services. Please celebrate her memory by listening to or playing a favorite piece or music, reading a treasured book, or better yet, watching an episode of Jeopardy. Condolences and memories may be sent to the loved ones directly, or through Long Funeral Home in Camden longfuneralhomecamden.com, or The Federated Church in Thomaston.
