Thousands of hungry dogs and cats have had Ann King to thank for the meal in their bowl.
When Ms. King heard reports that metro Atlantans were abandoning their pets because they could no longer feed themselves as well as their animals during the economic downturn, the longtime Morningside pet lover said she couldn’t stand by idly.
“If you have to pick between feeding your kids and feeding your pet, of course the pet is going to be the one that loses out,” Ms. King said in a 2008 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. “But if we can help them get food for their pets, then we can keep those pets in their homes, instead of the pets being dumped at a shelter or just abandoned.”
Ms. King’s passion for animal rescues was the inspiration behind the Save Our Pets Food Bank, which she founded the same year. Since its creation, the food bank has served more than 300,000 families, pet rescue groups and shelters with pet food donated by the Morningside community and many others across the city and Georgia.
Theresa Ann King, 60, died suddenly March 7. A memorial service is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Virginia Highland Church in Atlanta. H.M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, is handling arrangements.
Ms. King, the daughter of the late Robert A. King and Doris Coker King Newsom, was born Sept. 22, 1951 in Abbeville, S.C., but she grew up in Columbus. She graduated from Columbus High School in 1969 and received a journalism degree from the University of Georgia in 1973.
After leaving UGA, Ms. King joined Delta Air Lines at age 22 as a flight attendant and remained at the airline for 10 years.
Sally Burger of Pulaski, Tenn., said her sister always wanted to help people and animals and saw an opportunity to do both toward the end of her Delta career.
Ms. King founded Blooming Cookies in 1984. The company employed out-of-work local artists and others who created long-stemmed cookie gift arrangements. Some of her employees were HIV sufferers who could not find work, Mrs. Burger recalled.
“When families would have nothing to do with them, she did,” said Mrs. Burger, who added her sister at times would pay for the HIV workers’ medication.
Blooming Cookies and another company Ms. King founded, PAWS Fifth Avenue Pet Gifts, also allowed Ms. King to fund more efforts to rescue animals.
Since 2008, when Ms. King devoted herself full time to animal rescues by forming Save Our Pets Food Bank, the nonprofit has distributed more than 1 million pounds of pet food and recently helped pet owners displaced by the tornadoes in Alabama and Tennessee.
The key to the food bank's success has been donations from pet food companies and the community.
Morningside pet blogger Diane Silver, Ms. King's neighbor for over four years, organized a pet food drive with other bloggers two years ago and collected 230 pounds of food for Ms. King’s food bank.
“People in Morningside have this connection with pets and Ann was one of those people,” Ms. Silver said. “She wasn’t somebody who would just sit around. She took action.”
Ms. Silver said Ms. King, who had lived in Atlanta for several decades, was just as passionate about Morningside, where she started a community garden several years ago.
The women were last together two weeks ago when they walked their dogs along Hillpine Drive. Rather than ignore a pothole both had noticed, Ms. King returned and covered it with an orange cone so drivers would avoid it. She then reported it to the city.
“She was always looking out for the community,” Ms. Silver said. “Most people would just drive by it and curse at it, but Ann would go and do something.”
In addition to Mrs. Burger, Ms. King is survived by another sister, Carole Kendall of Columbus.
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