John C. King Jr.

John C. King Jr., age 88, of Brenham,Texas passed from this life on November 17, 2013. He was born October 16, 1925, the youngest of eight children, to John and Maggie Tucker King in the Glen Cove area of Coleman County. He attended the Glen Cove and Talpa schools where he played football, basketball, and baseball, graduating from Talpa in 1943.
On August 12, 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served 20 months in the South Pacific with the Seventh Fleet, and took part in the retaking of the Phillipine Islands. After the war, he returned to the Glen Cove area and bought some cattle and sheep and also at times worked in the oil patch, combined, sheared sheep and cowboyed. He eventually worked as lead operator in a gas plant.
In June, 1947, he married Ladell Young and to them, two daughters were born: Donna Lynette and Debra Eileen. In January, 1958 Ladell died at age 27 as a result of a diabetic coma. Donna married Dr. Cliff Roche in 2008. Debra married Thomas Bradley and had two sons, Timothy who was stillborn, and Brandon. Debra is now married to Anton Matejek and has two step-children, Tony and Gina.
On November7, 1959, John and Jo Ann Cathey of Coleman, Tx. were married. To them a son was born, John Michael King. He married Donna Denise Williams and they had two children, Tristen Nicole and John Matthew. Tristen married Stephen Bell and have two children, Madison and Ashley and Matt has a stepson Caleb with his partner Cindi.
In 1962, he and his wife Jo Ann opened King’s Cafeteria in Coleman, Texas but lost it to fire eleven months later when a drum of chemical cleaner exploded in the business next door and burned them out. In the fall of 1964, he went to Houston where the family soon followed. He was employed by Drilco Oil Tools for five years as a machinist, and then foreman and maintenance repair supervisor and then was senior buyer for ten years.
In 1979 he was employed by Chance Collar Co, a new company launched by some cohorts who had been executives at Drilco, and began as plant superintendent and was soon promoted to general operations manager. He greatly enjoyed his time at Chance as he got to travel purchasing machines. His most enjoyable trip was to Japan. Jo Ann was given permission to go with him and they had a wonderful time for two weeks. Besides purchasing most of the company’s machines, he was over all of the field shops.
He retired in August, 1989 and he and Jo Ann moved to Brenham, Texas to the Oak Hill Acres subdivision and then in 2002 relocated to West Stone Street. His true joy after retirement was his yard and gardens. During their time on Stone St. he won Yard-of-the-Month twice. He and his wife enjoyed Brenham for many years as the best place they had ever lived.

He and Jo moved to Conroe, Tx. In May 2013 due to declining health living with Mike and Donna in their Conroe home. His love for gardening came right along with him as he quickly put family to work on planting flowers and such. His last months were by no means gloomy, he took a week-long vacation with the family to Gulf Shores, AL, played games with his kids, grandkids and great grandkids. He always had a way of putting a smile on your face or make you laugh with his witty ways and his quirky smile. Anchors Away my Friends!!!