When she was a little girl, Amelia King York accidentally let go of a red, helium balloon. She didn’t cry, but simply said confidently to her mother, “Daddy will get it.”
A lot of people, particularly journalists around the globe, grew to have the same trust in her father, Will King.
A hard-news man with a soft heart and dry wit, King was a calm and measured voice in the middle of storms and newsroom egos, making sure his reporters were safe and the story was covered no matter what.
In a career that spanned four decades, King, one of the original crew of journalists who started CNN, oversaw coverage of a the Berlin Wall’s fall, the Gulf War, and genocide in Rwanda. As head of news operations, he laid the groundwork for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
He made sure reporters had money in their pockets and instructions on how to protect themselves in war zones and other dangerous places. When he would leave home in the morning for CNN headquarters, he’d tell Amelia and son Spencer he was going “to go make doughnuts.”
William Lee King died May 19 at his home in Decatur, surrounded by his wife, Linda Herbers, daughter Amelia King York and son Spencer King. He was 64. King had a brain tumor that he learned at Thanksgiving had resisted treatment and grown. He accepted that news as he had faced the tragedies he had covered — with realism and calm.
King was born in Memphis on Dec. 2, 1951 to William Burnell and Ethel Johnson King. He wanted to be a journalist from the time he was a boy.
He would ride a bus to the Peabody Hotel, where radio station WREC was in the basement, said Herbers. “He would knock on the door, and they would let him in. He got to watch them produce it, and he was fascinated.”
He studied journalism at the University of Memphis, graduating in 1974, then worked for Memphis television station WHBQ. One day, covering a festival, he met a nursing student named Linda Herbers. They celebrated their 38th anniversary in April.
King loved working at “Q” but to a news junkie like him, Ted Turner’s vision of a 24-hour news network sounded like heaven. He started as a CNN video journalist in Atlanta in May, 1980, just two weeks before the network launched its first news show. Even the staffers sometimes wondered if it could work. “They called it Chicken Noodle Network,” Herbers said.
But King was a firm believer. He once likened the experience to working in Thomas Edison’s lab. His skipper was every bit the showman Edison was, known for his boisterous, eccentric and provocative comments. King was the calm in the chaos, known for unfailing humility amid a newsroom of erupting egos.
“In the early days, etiquette was not quite there,” said Parisa Khosravi, former senior vice president of news gathering. King stood out for his mild, measured manner. “Will was just the cool, calm guy. His spirit, his kindness, his sense of integrity were all amazing.”
As the network caught on, King had a role in covering events around the world, winning awards for many of them. In 1985, King was sent to Frankfurt to open the network’s bureau there.
King and Herbers returned to the U.S. after Amelia was born, and he was named senior international editor and, later, managing editor and vice president of international news gathering. He orchestrated or supported coverage that won Emmys, Peabodys, Overseas Press Club and duPont and Edward R. Murrow awards.
While international news was his specialty, was called upon to coordinate coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. He hitched a ride to New Orleans on a tractor-trailer to take crucial supplies to news crews.
“He was a brilliant journalist and a loyal and dedicated CNN colleague,” said Turner in a statement.
Khosravi said, “When people joined CNN, he would spend the day with them and walk them through it. He wanted to make sure that people would appreciate the company and what it stood for.”
King “was the go-to man on so many things, the ultimate unsung hero,” said longtime colleague Tony Maddox, executive vice president of CNN International. “People don’t realize that a lot has to go into making that happen,” Maddox said of reporting from afar, particularly in dangerous areas. “You’ve got to have money, you’ve got to have cash (for the reporters). They’ve got to be safe.”
He “was a man of detail, and the bottom line was always about taking care of people in war zones,” Khosravi said.
He also took care of his family, and he never brought home the stress, they said.
Just as he never raised his voice in the newsroom, King never raised his voice at home, his daughter said. If she or her brother had a bad day at school, he would read to them or “play any game we wanted.” He also was goofy, she said, and danced to cheer the kids up or make them laugh. Once, when he was mowing the lawn she watched from indoors as he danced and writhed. She thought it was one of his “goofy dances,” but “as it turns out, he had mowed over a bed of wasps.”
A memorial service scheduled Friday at 7 p.m. at Cator Woolford Gardens, the place where King danced with his daughter at her wedding reception nearly three years ago, just two months before he was diagnosed with cancer. He also was able to attend son Spencer’s graduation in December. Both events meant the world to the international newsman, friends and family said.
In addition to his wife, daughter and son, King is survived by a brother, Christopher King, of Fair Hope, Ala.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Will King to Captain Planet Foundation, one of Ted Turner’s philanthropic initiatives, at 133 Luckie Street, 2nd Floor, Atlanta, GA 30303 or via the website, http://www.captainplanetfoundation.org/donate.
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