OK Obits

© The Bakersfield Californian
Sunday, 10 July 2005
Submitted by: Alex Carter

George King, Jr.

January 5, 1918 ~ June 21, 2005

George King, Jr., son, brother, husband, father of three, grandfather of four and great-grandfather of four passed away in Houston, TX on June 21, 2005 after a long illness.

Mr. King was born January 5, 1918 in Muskogee, OK, to George and Florence King.

He married Mary Kathryn Neal of Van Buren, AR, in 1938 and moved to Fort Smith, AR, where he began his building career and soon became the owner of Daking Mill.

In 1953, he began a new career by owning and operating the 3rd franchised Holiday Inn in the nation located in Colorado Springs, CO.

After selling his first hotel he moved to Bakersfield, CA, developed and operated the 5th nationally franchised Holiday Inn located on South Union Avenue at White Lane. He continued to build hotels in the Bakersfield area and was responsible for more than 1,000 hotel rooms being added to the city. He built and operated hotels in CO, CA, AR, and TN.

Later in his career, he purchased and developed over 10,000 acres of Kern County farm land, owned an irrigation company, developed and operated a local 333 space mobile home park and was active in all forms of real estate development and construction. He retired in 1975 and remained in Bakersfield until 2001.

Mr. King was preceded in death by his wife of 58 years; his sons Grover Neal and Robert Jay King.

Survivors include one son, George King III and his wife Christine of Houston, TX; his sister Katherine Gawf of Muskogee, OK; four grandchildren, Robert Jay King, Jr., and Mary Roxanne Williford of Bakersfield, Dustin Timothy King of Las Vegas and Kathryn Marie King of Houston; and four great-grandchildren, Robert III, Hanna, Westin and Wyatt.

Mr. King was a Lifetime member and Master (1951) of Sebastion Lodge #706 AF&AM in Fort Smith, AR, a 32 degree member of the Scottish Rite and al Malalkah Shrine Temple member.

At his request, no memorial service will be held. The family requests in lieu of flowers, a gift be made to the Houston Hospice for their unwavering commitments to the terminally ill.

|OK Obits|  |Oklahoma Cemeteries Home|

This site may be freely linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent.
All rights reserved! Commercial use of material within this site is prohibited!
© 2000-2024 Oklahoma Cemeteries

The information on this site is provided free for the purpose of researching your genealogy. This material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, for your own research, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The information contained in this site may not be copied to any other site without written "snail-mail" permission. If you wish to have a copy of a donor's material, you must have their permission. All information found on these pages is under copyright of Oklahoma Cemeteries. This is to protect any and all information donated. The original submitter or source of the information will retain their copyright. Unless otherwise stated, any donated material is given to Oklahoma Cemeteries to make it available online. This material will always be available at no cost, it will always remain free to the researcher.