MEEKIE RUTH HERRINGTON KING, the youngest child
of Doris Rice Herrington (RHS-1937) & Phelton Herrington,
was born Feb. 1, 1953 in Ranger, TX. She graduated in
the Class of 1971 from Ranger High School, where she
played trombone in an award-winning band. Interment was
at Evergreen Cemetery in Ranger.
The family lived on a farm about eight miles north of
town at the intersection of the Caddo & Strawn highways.
Along with her two brothers and her mother, Meekie took
a big share of the responsibility for such a little girl.
She was not yet four years of age when the structure of
the family changed making her mother and siblings solely
responsible for the dairy farm’s operation. They left the
farm in September 1960 just as she was beginning the second
grade at Hodges Oak Park.
She continued to have to be unusually self-reliant as her
older brother Mike left home for college in 1961 and her
other brother Eddie Ray worked long hours at a service
station on Highway 80. Immediately after graduation, she
moved to Albuquerque, where Mike, newly married, taught
in the public schools & where her mother had just relocated.
Albuquerque was to become her primary home as an adult.
Among the various jobs she held while living there, the
one she loved the most was driving a school bus, especially
for special needs children. In 1972 she married David C.
King, a chiropractor and part-time musician. They had one
son, Kevin David. Later the couple divorced.
At age 35 on July 2, 1988 in Killeen, TX, she died from
a self-inflicted gunshot, leaving behind a very sad family.
She was survived by her life partner Kathryn Miller of
Killeen; her son Kevin of Killeen; her parents and step-
parents, Doris and Paul Garding of Vancouver, Washington
and Phelton and Delanie Herrington of Ranger; her brothers
Mike Herrington (RHS-1960) of Omaha, Nebraska and Eddie
Herrington (RHS-1968) & his wife Sylvia (RHS-1968) of
Irving as well as several nephews, nieces, cousins and
two aunts.
Eddie, Meekie, & Mike Herrington in 1954
Eddie, Meekie, & Mike Herrington in 1982