Obit – Mr. James Harold King
Mr. James Harold King of South Carthage was pronounced deceased at the age of 70 at 7 p.m. Thursday evening October 1, 2024 at the High Point – Riverview Emergency Room after being discovered deceased at his Cumberland Cove home. His death was apparently from heart failure.
His longtime pastor, Rev. Albert Strawther, will officiate at the Friday afternoon memorial celebration of life from the Carthage Chapel of Sanderson Funeral Home. The musical presence will be by the Smith County Male Chorus, of which Mr. King was a member. Burial will follow beside his mother in the Circle Park section at the Smith County Memorial Gardens.
The King family will receive friends at Sanderson in Carthage only on Friday October 11th from 11 a.m. until the 1 p.m. memorial service.
Mr. King was born in Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin on January 9, 1954 the only child of the late Dorothy Elizabeth King Wester who died April 11, 2013 at the age of 83.
He was reared in Carthage and resided with his grandparents, the late James “Jim Daddy” King who died October 14, 1978 at the age of 75 and Australia “Miss Doll” Bennett King who died October 17, 1981 at the age of 69.
Mr. King was a member of the 1972 graduating class at Smith County High School. There he majored in social studies and science. He was a member of the pep club all four years and as a member of the Smith County High School chorus, he was in the fall festivals and spring festivals. His senior year he was a member of the Spanish Club and was selected by all his classmates as the Most Outstanding Black gentleman at Smith County High. Following high school he attended Tennessee State University in Nashville.
Before his retirement, he was an over thirty-year employee at the William L. Bonnell Company in Gordonsville where he was a welder.
His first employment was as a grill cook at the former G & R. Restaurant on Dixon Springs Highway in Carthage, and after retirement he served as a dispatcher for the Town of Carthage Police Department.
He was a longtime member and Deacon at the former Turner Chapel A. M. E. Church on Third Avenue East in Carthage.
Mr. King was also a member of the Cumberland Masonic Lodge # 367 of Free & Accepted Masons and held all offices including Past Master.
His fellow Smith County Male Chorus members are Hugh and Curtis Sadler, C. W. High, Billy Bohannon, Jacky Dowell, Larry Sadler, James Harper, Bruce King, Kyle Carter & Gary Hardison.
Surviving are two sons, Stephen Pride and wife Alyssa of South Carthage, Shane McKoin-King of Cleveland, Tennessee; three grandchildren, Talon, Kendall, and Tate Pride of South Carthage; special friend, Michelle Givens of Carthage; and a multitude of cousins, other relatives and friends.
SANDERSON of CARTHAGE
