Isabelle King, local minister for six decades, dies at 101

09:19PM / Sunday, January 11, 2009

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Rev. Isabelle King

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Rev. Isabelle G. King, 101, who spent 60 years preaching at Baptist and community churches in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont, died Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009, at Williamstown Commons.

The Scot had planned to do missionary work in Africa after graduating from the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow but found herself in the United States working with the poverty-stricken in tough neighborhoods like New York's Hell's Kitchen and Boston's South End.

Speaking with iBerkshires just two days before more than 200 people would gather for her 100th birthday, King told how she arrived in Baltimore penniless at the start of the Great Depression.

"Money was all tied up in the banks and the banks were down. People lost their whole lives savings. And there was this little girl landed in the middle of it all and it was exciting," King said.

She would go on to carve out a life for herself in the United States and raise a family, all the while ministering at shelters, prisons and to congregations, and over the radio. She arrived in the Berkshires from Boston not long after World War II and never left.

Known for delivering her sermons extemporaneously, she would pace in front of the congregation, refusing to be tied to a pulpit. She only gave up preaching at the age of 97, when her legs could no longer keep up with her spirit.

"I had everything that anyone could ask for," King said. "You never know who's working to help you, you never know who God has his hand on."

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 13, 1907, daughter of John and Isabella Davis Greer, she was educated in Glasgow schools and graduated from the Bible Training Institute there.

Trained in missionary work, Rev. King came to the United States in 1930 and served with the Grace and Hope Missions of Baltimore. She was ordained by its Presbytery in May 1934, and supervised missionary work in the downtown sections of cities, such as New York's Hell's Kitchen, Philadelphia's Chinatown, and Boston's South End, and in Norfolk, Va., prisons.

After coming to the Berkshires, she worked at Rudnik's Dry Cleaners and Mount Hope Farm's business office in Williamstown. She worked in the Williams College Library for nine years.

Rev. King was the pastor of Pownal (Vt.) Center Community Church for 11 years and Blackinton Union Church for six years. She also was interim pastor of Readsboro (Vt.) Baptist Church and Stamford (Vt.) Community Church, along with Baptist churches in Adams and Wilmington and Whitingham, Vt. From 1948 until 1984, she had joined the morning devotions and meditations program on the local radio station.

She was a member of the Women's Guilds of Blackinton Union and the Stamford Community churches and of the Daughters of Scotia.

Rev. King had resided at 85 Eagle St. until entering the nursing home a few months ago.

Her husband, Arthur W. King, is deceased.

She leaves a son, David E. King of Port Charlotte, Fla.; a daughter, Rae G. Bronson of Bennington, Vt.; three grandchildren, Walter Clark of Bennington, Terri McCluskey of Orangeburg, N.Y., and Greer Gallant of Hoosick Falls, N.Y.; seven great-grandchildren; a great-great-grandchild; her best friend, Dorothy Wilson of North Adams, and nieces and nephews in Canada, South Africa and Scotland.

"The Lord brought me this far and he'll take me the rest of the way," she told iBerkshires before hitting the century mark.

FUNERAL NOTICE — The funeral for the Rev. King will be Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 11 at Blackinton Union Church. Burial will be in the spring in Oak Hill Cemetery in Pownal, Vt. Calling hours at Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, West Chapels, 521 West Main St., North Adams, will be Tuesday from 4 to 7. Please omit flowers. Donations may be made to Blackinton Union Church, Stamford Community Church or Grace and Hope Missions in care of the funeral home

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