Chapter 0; Preview to the King Genealogy writeup
About Bill King: Born 1924, died September 1997. He died of a nasty case of colon cancer found one or two years to late when the symptoms were finally to significant to ignore. He was married to Donna (Kavanagh) at the time of his death and was living in Show Low Arizona (which has a colorful history all it’s own). Donna was a loving wife and tended him through the several months as he wasted away and when he finally died she was the one that was with him to the end.
Dad, spent several good years with Donna, who was his second wife. He met Donna while working for CSC on assignment in Germany. [Donna, some history would be useful here…]
Dad’s first wife and my mother was Grace Margaret Murdock (B. Jan 21 1924, D. Dec 21, 2015). They were married soon after they got out of the service at the end of WWII. He completed getting a degree at the University of California at Berkeley in Paleontology and Grace suspended her education so that she could support the small family till Dad graduated. Mom’s history can be found in the Hildebrand genealogy on another page. Dad got out of school and joined Shell oil company as a roughneck (working the oil wells). He learned to find and map signs that might indicate oil and became a mapper for Shell. During this time he and Grace had several children (Mike + 18 months, Sandy + 18 months, Patty + 18 months to finally have Tom – the youngest). This period was certainly a growth period for the parents and a very interesting time for the children.
As of this date (Feb 28, 2017) all 4 children are alive with 4 grandchildren - 2 to Mike (and Judy) and 2 to Patty (and Victor - since divorced). We are all living in America, with Sandy in Wisconsin, Patty in Washington state, and Mike and Tom in California. Mike is married to Judy Bush, Sandy is not married, Patty is married to Tony Hansen) and Tom is married to Blaine Couvier.