Jim King was close friends with my older brother Donald, part of the group that went off to St. Thomas College, which is how I first met Jim. A couple of years later, when a few of us Ascension kids found compadres among the St. Luke's kids, I forged a lifelong friendship with Jim's younger Mike. The ensuing high school years found our gang invariably headquartered in Mike's basement, where Jim and his college guys would pass through frequently. Jim was that older brother who had an undying fondness for younger brother Mike (as did we all) and this spilled over into his acceptance of us. Jim loved a good story, both in the telling and in the listening, and so one felt comfortable in his presence. He had that humility that put others first, as became so evident later when he began publicly witnessing for the unborn. I didn't know the older brothers, and I didn't know Mr. King well, But Mrs. King I did know, and it was her lively spirit of humor and selflessness that seems to have embedded in both Jim and Mike. Jim, no matter the trials he endured, was always funny and upbeat. He knew a loving and merciful Savior was our model for life. He lived that conviction.

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