Pearl L. King

Pearl King was born in Lancaster England on July 2, 1918. As a young girl she enjoyed running and dancing. All that came to a sudden end when she was warming up at the fireplace and a boiling pot of potatoes fell and landed on her legs. In the early century there was no cure or even pain relief for such serious burns. After months of pain and amputation a possibility, a stone was ground into the flesh and it worked.

As a teenager in 1937 her father was digging a big hole in the back yard. His neighbors asked what are you doing Herman? He said he was building a bomb shelter to protect his family from that crazy German, Hitler. He put a bench inside and a steel plate on top and that is where Pearl, her brother Neville and parents stayed every night for years during World War II. Ankle deep in water and listening to their neighbors scream as the bombs came down, Pearl said could I just go and get some tea? Obviously not but staying in such a heavily bombed industrial town was not the answer. The family moved from Manchester to St Anne's on Sea. St Anne's is a retirement town just south of Black Pool, the entertainment town that Hitler said he was going to in celebration of conquering England.

Now during the war the Yanks arrived and one of them was Robert King. He was set up for a blind date but was stood up. Pearl was there and took her place for a "date" that lasted six decades. After the war they wrote to each other for years and then got onto a US government program called the War Brides Act. Pearl sold her baby grand piano and left her family in 1948 to come to a country she had never been to and to marry a man she did not know that well. After they married, Pearl moved into the Queen Anne apartment Bob was living in with his grandmother. It was not that nice, with rats so big they took off with the rattraps. So, soon after they bought a house in North Seattle. In 1950 Pearl had her only child, Larry. She was so proud of Larry that she had to show him off and went back to England for a six-month visit and it was there that Larry learned to walk. She must have made quite an impression of American life since a few years later her mother and father moved here for the rest of their lives. It was a small house but with Pearl, Bob, her parents and a small child it seemed even smaller. After a few months Herman and Mable found an apartment and later bought a mobile home, the widest at the time, ten feet.

A few years later in 1956 her only sibling Neville and his wife (1st of 3) Mora came to live here. Neville was a drummer and left a great band in England to be in other bands in Seattle.

Pets: Pearl loved animals and one of her first was a monkey when she was a child. Although monkeys might seem to be adorable pets, they get into everything. Latches will not stop them; putting things up high will not stop them. So when the little monkey was not being watched, he was confined to the laundry room. Unfortunately little monkeys can turn knobs and when he turned the gas valve on, this caused his demise. As a teenager and young woman, the family had a small dog called Tricky. Everybody loved Tricky and she had many litters in her life. Now in America, dogs were the preferred pets for over eighty years. The first dog was only a puppy when a neighbor poisoned it for "trespassing". There was no money for a veterinarian so it was like the last scene in Old Yeller. Larry called all dogs Bow Wow, so that was the name of our little mongrel for over fifteen years. In the mid sixty's the family got their first silver poodle, Coquette. She had one litter of seven puppies. One went to her brother Neville and Pearl kept the runt of the litter, Trinket. Years later, after Coquette and Trinket were gone, Gidget (granddaughter of Coquette) was the last dog they had. Pearl's last pets were cats and these were strays that she rescued and kept. When she sold her house and moved to assisted care, four cats found new homes. At the adult family home she lived in last, they had three dogs and a cat, and she really enjoyed them.

Camping: Pearl went camping in a tent ONCE. Trying to find a travel trailer in the early 50's was no small task. One trailer for sale that they looked at was a used horse trailer. The seller said it just needed sweeping out and put a cot in the corner. They did not buy it. They did find a trailer and one of their first trips was to Disney Land with her parents. Travel trailers were so rare in those days that if one were approaching, the drivers would honk and flash their lights. The third trailer was a new Aristocrat and they traveled with other Aristocrat owners around the country. When Larry went to college in Oregon he lived in the Aristocrat trailer, so Pearl and Bob bought an Aristocrat camper. Bob liked driving a camper better than towing but it was a little small. They moved up to a class A motor home after retirement and spent a few winters in Arizona.

Driving: Being taught to drive by your spouse does not always work out. The final straw was when Pearl let the clutch out too quickly and broke the axel, although a contributing factor might have been five people and a heavy trailer going to California and back. So, in secret, Pearl took lessons from a professional driving school and surprised Bob when she showed him her driver's license. In all her years of driving she never had an accident and only one ticket for making a U turn.

Music: Although she had sold her baby grand piano in England in 1948, she bought her first organ after retiring as a secretary at Safeco Insurance. She took lessons even after she moved to assisted living and joined music circles. She also enjoyed ballroom dancing and went every week for years.

Travel: Besides camping and her first trip back to England, she went back to England in 1965 with Larry. During this trip they spent several days in New York for the Worlds Fair. She had so many relatives and friends (in England) that the time went quickly. In 1971 she went to England with Bob. On this trip they also went to Holland.

Pearl out lived most of her friends and relatives and was a widow for the last eleven years. Her only surviving relative in her immediate family is her son Larry. She was a very good person and will be missed by all.