Saturday night, while I was at work, I learned of the passing of my aunt, Bertha King.  (Born Feb 10, 1922, Died Oct 19, 2007)  Bertha was the wife of Avery King, brother of my father, Roy King.  Bertha was 85 years old and was ready to move on.  A letter from her granddaughter stated Aunt Bert had previously asked why God was taking so long to come take her home.  Avery died in 1989, and Bertha never remarried but did remain in Youngstown Ohio with her family.  Her obituary is here.

Her servivors include her daughter Betty and son Robert.  At least it did, until today.  This morning we learned that Robert (aka Bob King) was very ill in his home of Iloilo City in the Philippines. 

(As I understood it he began work there many years ago, loved it and bought a local tavern.  He spent part of the year either in Oklahoma and Ohio with family or in the Philippines.)  He was complaining of swollen legs on October 20th.  On October 21st Bob was taken to the local hospital and told he had Tuberculosis, sepsis (infection) and a pulmonary infection.  At some point this morning his infection was so bad it was not responding to medication and he too has passed away.  Bob was a really great man.  He was the only member of the King family who pushed forward and gathered what genealogical information he could from this member or that.  He had a smile on his face every time I saw him and joked almost constantly.  I've not seen him in many many years but did recieve emails from him every so often.

Bob is survived by his wife, Sue.  Children are : Jeanie King, Brian (Cindy) King, Rob (Jodi) King, Tim (Debbie) Graham and Robert King.   Yvonne, mother of Jeanie and Robert Jr, had just arrived today in Milan to try and help Bob seek better health care.  Jeanie has ask that Bob be creamated, then return to the states, Yvonne will try to bring him home with her.  Jeanie will likely try to set up a Memorial Service soon.  This is a huge blow for the King family, losing two of our own in two days time.  Mother and son, halfway across the world from one another.