The events of June 6, 1944, had a profound effect of the life of Mitchell King.
Not only was he in the middle of the D-Day invasion on Normandy Beach, but his dreams of a military career were shattered after he was hit by shrapnel as he came onto the beach, his daughter said. At the time of the invasion, King was a naval reservist who’d already graduated from law school at the University of Georgia.
“He sustained fairly significant injury and his skull was fractured,” Lee Campbell King said of her father. “He was able to recover fairly fully, but he was not able to return to military service.”
King also had aspirations of diplomatic service and was well suited for the task, said Bettie Chester, a long-time family friend who lives outside Chattanooga, Tenn.
“He came along in an age of gracefulness,” she said. “His poise, his graciousness, he was the epitome of diplomacy.”
King went on to become a man of letters, earning several degrees from schools around the globe.
“He was a life-long learner and a true southern gentleman,” his daughter said.
Mitchell Campbell King Jr. of Atlanta died Tuesday in his sleep at his Sunrise of Buckhead residence. He was 96.
A memorial service is planned for 10 a.m. on Friday at the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta. Cremation arrangements were handled by H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill Chapel.
For his wartime sacrifice, King was awarded the Purple Heart and given an honorable discharge, said his daughter, who lives in Atlanta. Upon his return to the U.S., the Atlanta native opened a civil law practice, which he maintained until the early 1950s when he went to work in banking.
Around the same time, King married the former Anne Preston Farrior. The couple raised three daughters and were married for nearly 50 years when she died in 2001.
King earned several degrees in history, one from Emory University and two from international schools. In the late ‘50s, King left banking and became a special lecturer in Egyptology at what is now the Michael C. Carlos Museum on the Emory campus, his daughter said. King also shared his expertise in history with the Atlanta Historical Society in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
“He had a wide range of interests,” Chester said. “He was interested in everything and seemed to know a little bit about everything.”
King is also survived by daughters, Jeannette Finley Flom King of Tampa, Fla., and Kathleen Spotwood King Goodfriend of Portland, Ore., and four grandchildren.
About the Author
