Dr. Billy King

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 13, 2007

Graveside services for Dr. Billy King, 89, of Monterey, who died Thurs., Jan. 11, 2007, at his residence, will be held 2 p.m. Sunday at King Cemetery with Father Bob Cooper officiating.

Burial will follow under the direction of Young’s Funeral Home in Ferriday.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the funeral home.

Dr. King was born Dec. 13, 1917, in North Little Rock, Ark. He graduated from Gulf Port Military Academy in 1934 and spent several years farming at Horseshoe Lake. He entered medical school in 1942 but left to serve in World War II from 1943-1946. He graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine in 1949. He started general practice in Harrisonburg and Jonesville from 1951-1954, then performed service with public health from 1954-1957. He completed his radiology training in 1958 followed by a National Cancer Institute fellowship at the M.D. Anderson in Houston. He was radiology chair at the University of Texas Post Graduate School of Medicine in San Antonio from 1960-1962. His private practice of radiology began in Camden, Ark., from 1962-1966 and then to Warner Brown Hospital in El Dorado, Ark., from 1966-1988. He was instrumental in introducing mammography, ultrasonography and computerized tomography to South Arkansas. He retired to Horseshoe Plantation in Jonesville in 1988 and operated his farm until his death.

He was preceded in death by his father, Dr. Jesse Arthur King, M.D.; his mother, Lady Mac Simmons King; brothers, Jack King and Malcolm King; and sister, Mary K. Carpenter.

Survivors include his wife, Grace J. King of Monterey; sons, Billy Dewell King Jr. of Houston, John Martin King of Houston, Dr. Micheal Todd King M.D. of Little Rock, Ark. and Dr. Stephen Paul King M.D. of El Dorado; daughter, Debra Ann Rudolph of Little Rock; step-sons, Stephen Griffin of Houston and Michael Griffin of Houston; step-daughters, Liz Rinehimer of Houston, Gail Foster of Houston and Ceilia Robinson of Austin, Texas.

Pallbearers will be family.