Elmer Roy King ‘Bookey’
May 26, 1925-Oct. 5, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:10 AM PDT
Payette
Elmer Roy (Bookey) King, 83, of Payette, Idaho, passed away Oct. 5 at his home. Visitation will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009, at Ontario Lienkaemper Chapel. Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, at Ontario Lienkaemper Chapel with interment at Evergreen Cemetery.
Elmer (Bookey) was born on May 26, 1925, in Pasadena, Calif., to Clark and Tressie King. At the age of 3, they moved to Higgins, Texas. In 1937, the family picked up and moved to Oregon — first Vale then to Unity. There he met his first wife, Leah Palmer, and they married in 1943 and had five children. They later divorced in 1949. In 1951, Elmer met and married the love of his life, Lois Jean Clark, on March 23 in Nevada.
Elmer first started his career as a heavy equipment operator for his brother Otis King for $2 a day. The boys then went to logging, and Elmer still made $2 a day. Elmer and Lois lived in tents until July. Before the heavy snow fell, the women and children had to leave camp. After logging, Elmer started working more with heavy equipment. He drove a D-8 Cat for Clarence Leesburg and Jim Hawkins and Merle Maine. They moved riverbeds, leveled land and also helped build roads, including the road leading up to the Owyhee Dam. In 1961, Elmer and Lois, with their children Lonnie, Tony, Peggy and Larry, moved from Vale to Ontario. This is the time when Dad started custom farming and also farmed 500 acres of his own. They also were the first family to have an outside light in Malheur County.
In November of 1971, with their children including two new additions, David and Lisa, the family moved to Payette. Elmer continued his custom farming, which became King & Sons Custom Farming. In 1975, their last child was born, Kevin. Elmer continued custom farming until August of 2008 in Payette, where he finished out the rest of his life with his wife of 58 years beside him.
Elmer was preceded in death by his parents, Clark and Tressie King; an infant daughter, Wanda; two sons, Gary and Mike; and two brothers, James Wesley and Lauren King.
He is survived by his wife, Lois; five sons, Lonnie (Charlene), of Donnelly, Idaho, Tony (Venda), of Payette, Idaho, Larry, of Payette, Idaho, David, of Payette, Idaho, and Kevin (Shandy), of Payette, Idaho; two daughters, Peggy (Willard), of Nyssa, Ore., and Lisa (Tate), of Ontario, Ore.; a brother, Otis King, of Ontario, Ore.; many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
Condolences can be sent on line at www.lienkaemper-thomason.com.
