Brothers Lavon (left) and Popkins (right) Zakarian were part of the Armenian community in Maine, one of the oldest in America.

Popkins Zakarian (1903-1980) was born in Bulgaria and immigrated to Portland with his Armenian parents, Mary and John, and brother, Lavon, around 1904. He worked in an Armenian grocery store, and later operated a linoleum business in Portland for 50 years. Lavon went to the University of Maine and had a distinguished football career.

The first Armenian immigrants arrived in Maine in 1896 to escape growing persecution in Turkey. Hundreds more arrived by the time of the Armenian Genocide in 1915.