Rosemary W King

Rosemary King, age 95, passed away on August 29, 2026. Born on November 14, 1930, in Duluth, Minnesota, Rosemary was a Renaissance person who lived a long, creative life centered on family, friends, art, and the animals she loved so dearly. Rosemary is survived by her seven children, nieces and nephews, including great and great-great-grandchildren, and many grandchildren, including great- and great-great-grandchildren.

In 1951, Rosemary moved to San Diego and took a job at the Balboa Movie Theatre in the Gaslamp District as a candy girl. It was there that she met a young sailor, Frank “Woody” Woodbury, who was moonlighting selling movie tickets. They fell in love, married, settled in Chula Vista, and built a home filled with children, pets, laughter, noise, and love.

A brilliant artist, Rosemary found ways to be creative no matter how busy life became. Her palette was often a Corelle dinner plate and her easel a dining room chair. She painted, sculpted, made jewelry, painted ceramics, and poured imagination into anything artistic she touched.

Her creativity showed up in family life in unforgettable ways. At the Harborside Elementary School Halloween event in 1966, her children won prizes for costumes she designed and made with remarkable detail and humor—from a frightening Medusa with pipe-cleaner snakes in her daughter Sally’s hair, to transforming Patricia into Cousin Itt from The Addams Family, to a perfect child-sized Jeannie costume from I Dream of Jeannie for Rosemary “Babe”.

When her children were older, Rosemary returned to college to study criminal justice and became a prison guard. She took prisoner crews into the San Diego mountains to fight fires. Though not five feet tall and naturally shy, she carried quiet strength, determination, and courage.

In the late 1980s, Rosemary began volunteering with community theatres, including On Stage Playhouse in Chula Vista, Coronado Playhouse, Lamplighters, and others. For over thirty years, until the pandemic, she built sets, designed and painted scenery, and did whatever was needed behind the scenes. Her award-winning sets became part of countless productions.

Rosemary will be remembered as a loving mother, a gifted artist, an animal lover, and a woman of grit, humor, and imagination. She saw beauty wherever she went and gave generously of herself to the people and communities she loved.

In her final days, Rosemary was surrounded by most of her seven children. The last sentence she spoke was, “I love you, too”—a fitting farewell from someone who was so loved.

A celebration of Rosemary’s life will be arranged in the future.