St Landry County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....King, Judge George R. March 22, 1871
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mary K. Creamer marykcreamer@yahoo.com July 14, 2015, 10:05 pm

The Opelousas Courier (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, April 01, 1871, Image 2

Death Notice:
source: The Opelousas Courier. (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, March 25, 1871, 
English, Image 2

We are deeply saddened by the announcement, on Tuesday, the 22d inst., of 
the death of our esteemed fellow-citizen, Judge George R. King, at the 
residence of Col. B. R. Rogers, after a short illness, at half-past 2 
o'clock P. M. on the same afternoon.

Obituary:
source: The Opelousas Courier. (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, April 01, 1871, 
English, Image 2

The Late George R. King.

The close of a long life, associated, while living, with both public and 
social positions of usefulness, is well calentated to leave behind it a 
faithful and endearing impress of the worth of the departed dead.

It is around his last resting abode on earth, in the midst of a community 
where his living cotemporaries and succeeding generations long sustained 
those relations that the purest and most unbiased estimate of the deceased 
is to be looked for.

The cold and inanimate form of the dead, in all its loneliness, free from 
the stormy conflicts of the past, the strife and uncharitableness - 
sometimes incidental to prominent public responsibilities, was an occasion 
of all others, strikingly propitions to the truthful and honest judgment of 
the merits of a past life. The last sad obsequies to the lamented subject of 
this notice on the 22d ult., in that touching service of the Episcopal 
Church by the Right Revd Bishop of the Diocese and the Revd. ofliciating 
minister, examplified in the attendence of the Bar, of which he was the 
Nestor in years and honor, and the large concourse of friends, the high 
estimation in which he had so long and deservedly been held in this Parish 
where he had been born, lived and died.

Judge King departed this life after a short illness, at the residence of his 
old and valued friend, Col. B. R. Rogers, at 2:30 P. M., of Tuesday, the 
21st ult., in the 64th year of his age. His father, Judge George King, and 
himself, an only son, had for more than half a century been identified with 
this people in high and responsibel trusts, and bore with them to their 
graves the generous commendations of an appreciative community, - the former 
as Judge of this Parish from the early inauguration of civil goverment in 
Louisiana; - the latter as District Attorney, Representative in the 
Legislature, District Judge and lastly for years one of the Associate 
Justices of the Supreme Court. To all these varied trusts of high 
responsibility he brought the attainments of a mind well natured and 
carefully stored. Of unbending intergrity and stern honesty of purpose, he 
left the deep impress of his sterling sense of justice and of right upon 
every act of his public life. His early life under the faithful training of 
his cultivated and refined family, and the admirable village schools of that 
day, had imparted even to his boyhood a manliness and courteons and polished 
bearing, which when natured by a finished course of study at the University 
of Virginia and its associations with the youth of mark and future 
distinction in our then great and prosperous nation, had stamped him over as 
one of nature's noblemen.

A full course of law lectures and reading under that distinguished jurist, 
Professor Lomax, prepared him for the Bar, when marrying Miss Win, of 
Charlotsville, by whom he had an only daughter, Virginia, now the pride and 
ornament of her sex, both of whom survive him, settled in this his native 
village, entering the lists of those distinguished lights of the profession, 
then his contemporaries, Brownson, Bowen, Simon, Brent, Lewis and Lesassier, 
he attained, after the patient incubrations of years, the highest judicial 
honors in the gift of his State.

Naturally of a delicate and frail conformation, the arduous labores of 
nearly four years on the Supreme Bench, deelining health and wasting 
energies, all called for some relaxation and rest. Retiring from the Bench, 
its cares and responsibilities, with a handsome competence, he selected a 
valuable estate on the Bayou Boeuf, where surrounded with all the appliances 
for successful planting, in the bosom of his devoted family and kind 
neighbors, he looked forward to the quiet enjoyment of the remnant of his 
days. But all such anticipations proved to be in the sequel the mere 
illusions of a dream, soon to be dissipated forever, leaving as its only 
solace the bitter dregs of disappointment and woe. The alternate occupation 
of this portion of the State by both armies for the last three years of our 
late distastrous and cruel struggle hung like a pall over all its material 
and social hopes and interests, brooding from day to day during the trying 
scenes of that evetful period of desolation and ruin, which at its close but 
too faithfully reflected the dire poverty, helplessness and want to which 
our hapless people had been so ruthlessly subjected. It was under such a 
condition of the country that the deceased returned with his family, in the 
fall of 1865, from the neighboring State of Texas, in which he had 
previously taken refuge, to realize, in the view of his once happy and 
improved homestead wasted and desolate, the reverses and impending 
privation, which had come upon his declining years. There was nothing in or 
around that lonely and deserted abode of former hospitatity, social and 
domestic enjoyment, to shed one ray of hope, or to cheer or gladden him.

Years of estrangement from all connection with his profession had left 
little else upon his memory but the elements and leading cardinal principles 
of that complex science; yet, undaunted, and in that deep sense of the 
sanctity of obligation and duty, which had ever charasterized his whole 
life, he returned to the practice of law, and here in the kind and genial 
fellowship and esteem of his brother Barristers, continued faithfully to 
give to its pursuits all the waning energies of his body and mind up almost 
to the last hour of his life.

It has been the privilege of the writer of this article to have known the 
deceased from early manhood, and he does in all sincerity and truth pay this 
last tribute to his memory. As a model gentleman, uniting in a remarkable 
degree scrupulous truthfulness, the fascinating intelligence and polish of a 
cultivated intellect, suavety, ease, and deference of manners, genial and 
generous hospitality, active sensibility to the woes and distresses of his 
fellow man and charity for his faults and infirmities, he lived.

He passed away, leaving to his family and country the heritage of a record 
"saus peur et sans reproche."


Additional Comments:
NOTE: I could not find where Judge George R. King is buried. His wife Ann 
Elizabeth Winn and his daughter, Mary Virginia King, are both buired at the 
Metairie Cemetery located in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, LA.

www.findagrave.com memorial # 101306336 and 101306335

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/stlandry/obits/k/king6039gob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/lafiles/

File size: 7.5 Kb