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Warm Memory Dominates Life Of Mrs. Nadyne KingRy JOE FEl.TESMrs. Nadyne King of Kairvtew Park, Cleveland, was sitting quietly thumbing through a scrapbook she has started to preserve the memory of her son, SP-5 Lee R. King, an OHS graduate killed to action in Vietnam February 5.Turning through a number of pages of photographs. Mrs. King paused to lift from one of the pressed envelopes a letter she had received from General William Westmoreland. Looking up to me. she read, Your son made the supreme sacrifice in tlie service of his country for the cause of freedom. Mrs. King went over the message slowly, allowing each word to settle. Then she neatly tucked the letter away in Its rightful place.She placed the scrapbook on the table, and for a iftomcnt she gazed at a picture of her son cuddling a puppy mascot in Vietnam. Then her voice etched ! the silence. I am very proud of Lee. I am not bitter that he had to die in Vietnam, though the shock of his death has been very-hard to accept. Lee told me many times that he felt he had an obligation to fulfill in Vietnam. He died while doing what lie felt was right for him to do. Lee died a hero. Yes, 1 am very proud of him.On Friday, July 26. Major Scattergood, representing the U. S. Army, paid tribute to the former local resident by awarding SP-5 King the Bronze Star posthumously. The medal, which rests on a velvet mounting, is awarded’ for zeal, judgment and devotion to duty, keeping with the highest military tradition. With motherly pride,. Mrs. King accepted the award in behalf of her son, who would have been 22 years old that day.During our interview, Mrs.King held up the citation for my examination. As I read the inscription, Mrs. King’s eyes once again swept over tlie apartment, stopping at the windowsill upon which is perched an old plastic model car Lee had built a few years ago. A fond smile parted lier lips before she returned to my questioning.It is not hard for Mrs. King to recall the many days she had spent with her son. They were very close, especially after her husband, Raymond B. King, died in 1957. The impact of Lee’s death, however, precluded many things she would have liked to have said.With Lee, she began, it was always a question of application measuring up to his ability, but I'm afraid a lot of times the application fell short of its mark.” But when Lee entered the service, Mrs. King believes lie really began to settle down.Lee possessed a nervous energy which had to be channeled. ‘Tic always had to be kept busy.” Following his grammar school days at St. Thomas More in Cleveland, Lee was enrolled at St. Joseph Prep School in Bardstown, Ky.Since Lee did not have a father, said Mrs. King. I wanted him to associate with a lot of boys and at the same time receive the benefit of a Catholic education. It was a hard decision to send Lee away to school, but Mrs. King was always interested in his welfare. However. Lee was at St. Joseph’s briefly, for he and his mother moved to this city to reside with the late Ruth B. King at the comer of North Main and High Streets.Lee entered Orrville High as a sophomore, where his attention was preoccupied primarily by sports rather titan books. Oneof the biggest disappointments of Iris life came after an injury prevented him from athletic participation the duration of high school. Following the mishap. Lee’s attention focused on cars.He was always working on something mechanical, Mrs. King remembers. “When we first moved to Orrville. I let Lee have a room in the old house which he set aside for electric trains. He and a lot of other boys would spend hours up there building those trains along with buildings and bridges and all kinds of other accessories.“I wanted Lee to spend time around tlie house doing something constructive rather than roaming the streets. The trains for a time were just about the center of his activity.But as I*e grew up. his interests changed, too. Trains were packed away in crates. In addition to his new found interest in dating, Lee's mind began to sizzle with race car fever. The symptoms never left him and carried him through graduation from OHS in 1965 and to Miami Dade Junior College in Florida.While studying under tin- aerospace program, which included a course in flying. Lee began to seriously consider liis military duty. Tlie sense of obligation which swelled up Inside him culminated during his second semester when ho enlisted in the Army.Lee received basic training at Ft. Benning, Ga., where lie described the conditioning program as very rough. However, in his letters to his mother, he as-—Continued on Page 11Civil Wai■ II _ _ I
Newspaper Details
Orrville Courier Crescent
Orrville, Ohio, US
Thu, Aug 08, 1968
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
OH, USA 22 Oct 2017
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