Kim Paisley McDermott realizes she is helping maintain a legacy on area roads.

“Just knowing Mom and Dad put so much sweat and tears into it for so many years, I’m really proud to keep it going,” she said.

Paisley is the president of Paisley Trucking, of Rickardsville, a family firm she co-owns with her sister, Angie Crosby.

The sisters purchased the firm 11 years ago from their mother, Paula Paisley. Paula, 76, founded the firm in 1978 with her late husband, Gene Paisley.

Trucking was Gene’s life, Paula said, and a caravan of trucks participated in a funeral procession after Gene died in 2018, at age 72.

Paisley mechanic Luke Lehmann led the procession while driving the firm’s original truck.

“We bought that (truck) off the lot up at Truck Country in November 1978,” Paula said.

“Dad kept that truck in the shed for how many years, then about 10 years ago he began refurbishing it,” Kim said.

The story of that first truck, as well as the tale surrounding the history of the firm, begins with Gene’s longstanding love of truck driving and his instinct for quick business decisions.

“That was life with Gene,” Paula said. “I’m an organizer and the way he lived his life was — ‘let’s do it.’ That’s how he built this business up.”

It was more than 45 years ago when the Dubuque-based trucking company where Gene worked decided he was better utilized as a dispatcher in an office than hauling loads out on the road. That decision sparked Gene’s idea to take matters into his own hands.

“He told them, ‘if you don’t put me back on the road, I’m going to quit,’” Paula said. “And one day he came home — I’ll never forget that day because Angie was a baby — and he walked in the door and said, ‘Well, I did it.’”

Gene quit his job in October 1978. A few days later, he stopped at the John Deere facility in Waterloo, Iowa, for which he had hauled silica sand for years.

Paula said Gene told Deere officials that it was nice doing business with them.

Deere officials agreed and asked him to continue hauling sand.

“Gene said, ‘Give me two weeks,’ and two weeks later we were incorporated,” Paula said. “We had a truck and bought a used trailer.”

“And for the next 45 years, off and on, we have hauled sand for John Deere,” Kim said.

While Paula attended seminars at Des Moines Area Community College to learn trucking rules and regulations, Gene continued to slowly grow the business out on the road.

“We had to put a second truck on, and he hired a guy who would take a load,” Paula said. “We hired Amby the next fall.”

Ambrose “Amby” Heisler, of Farley, drove for the Paisleys for 42 years before his retirement in 2022.

“He was just a young kid (when he was hired),” Paula said. “Gene had worked with Amby’s brother. Gene said, ‘He’s a good farm kid, he knows what he is doing.’ Gene was always one for giving someone a chance.”

Gene never lost his love of truck driving.

“Dad dispatched all day, then he drove a truck at night,” Kim said. “Mom handled all of the office stuff. He didn’t want to have anything to do with the books. He wanted to be with the drivers.”

Gene and Paula had four kids, and all four would help with the family trucking business.

Paisley built its current Rickardsville office in 2000.

“Before that, we had (the office) in the basement of our house,” Kim said. “As soon as we (kids) could walk, we were down (in the basement office) taking paper clips off of things. All of us kids helped out as soon as we could.”

Kim joined the firm full-time shortly after her graduation from Loras College in 1997.

The firm hauls sand, salt, feed and agricultural products, as well as lime used by municipal water plants in the region.

“We don’t haul any food-grade (materials) or hazardous materials,” Kim said. “We used to haul for Flexsteel (Industries Inc.) for years.”

Kim said Gene was quick to adapt to customers’ needs.

“Dad was the kind of person who, if a friend of his needed liquid (items hauled), dad would just buy a liquid trailer,” Kim said.

Paisley Trucking currently has 10 trucks on the road and 10 spares. The firm hauls to destinations in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“It’s about a 300-mile radius,” Paula said.

Kim said the firm employs 10 drivers currently.

“The majority have been with us for over 20 years,” she said.

Kim attributes that longevity in part to relationships with employees.

“We’re small enough that we know them and we know their families,” she said. “We’re flexible in case they need help with stuff, and (the drivers) are the same way. If there is an emergency load, they will help us out with whatever they can do.”

Kim said the drivers develop longstanding relationships with customers, too.

“We’ve had customers who have called our drivers when they have loads (to haul) instead of the office because (the driver) is who they see all the time,” she said.

Kim said mechanic Luke Lehmann has also played an important part in the development and continued success of the company.

“Luke started as our mechanic in 1992, and he has been with us ever since,” Kim said. “If (drivers) have a problem, he gets it fixed over the weekend or if he can, he puts them in another truck.”

Only health problems could keep Gene off the road.

“Dad had his stroke in 2004, and after his stroke it was too hard for him to come down here (to Paisley Trucking), so he just concentrated on the (family) farm,” Kim said. “I was already working here, and we were going to have to hire somebody to help out.”

That was when Angie also decided to work at the firm.

Paula, Kim and Angie ran the business together, while Gene lived for 14 years after his stroke while spending the majority of his time on the farm.

The Paisley sisters purchased the business from their parents 11 years ago.

“I stayed on part time, then I retired eight years ago,” Paula said.

Kim said she and Angie have decided to keep the firm relatively small. She thinks her dad would have wanted that way.

“We don’t want it to get much bigger,” Kim said. “You lose personalization if you get too big.”