WATERVILLE — Lewis “Ludy” Levine, who owned and operated a landmark Waterville clothing store with his family for half a century, died Tuesday at a local nursing home. He was 98.

Levine and his brother, Percy “Pacy” Levine, started out as errand boys for their father, who owned Levine’s clothing store at the corner of Ticonic and Maple streets. The brothers, along with their nephew, Howard Miller, took over the store when William Levine died in 1946.

“Ludy loved people,” Miller said. “There wasn’t anybody who ever came in the store who he wouldn’t talk to.”

Levine’s brother died last November, months after the store on Main Street closed. Levine’s health began to fail after his brother’s death, Miller said. The bachelors had shared the same house in which they were born.

“Ludy and Pacy, whatever they did, they did together,” Miller said. “They acted as one.”

The brothers were as well-known for their devotion to their alma mater, Colby College, as they were for their service to their customers.

For more than 70 years, the brothers could be found on the sidelines of football games as the college’s best-known boosters.

“Few names have ever been more closely tied to Colby than that of Ludy Levine,” said Earl Smith, dean of the college. “With Ludy’s death, there is no doubt but that an era has ended, but there is no question but that their legacy of enthusiasm for Colby will live for a long, long time to come.”

Levine will be buried at 10 a.m. Sunday at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Portland. A funeral and memorial service will be held at the Colby College chapel at 3 p.m. Sunday.