Ethel Irene King was born on October 20, 1940 in a small town in New Hampshire, to Frank Mayer, a civil engineer, and Ethel Ehmke. Frank was originally from Iowa, where he played football for Iowa State, and Ethel (Ehmke) was from Winona, Minnesota. Frank was a member of Army Corp of Engineers and spent many years before and during World War II in India, Asia and elsewhere building airfields. After Ethel Mayer was born, the family lived for a time in Bermuda, and then ultimately settled in Los Angeles. Ethel attended UC Berkeley and achieved a bachelor’s degree in art history. After graduating, she met Jack Lester King in Berkeley. They were married in 1969, and in 1970 moved to Santa Barbara where Jack had secured a professorship, at UCSB. Later that year they delivered a pair of twins, Adam King and Sparrow King. While raising them, Ethel worked as a grade school teacher at Notre Dame Elementary and as a reading specialist.
Jack King passed away from acute leukemia in 1983, and Ethel never remarried. She worked with the Santa Barbara Museum and with various volunteer organizations. An animal lover, she owned several dogs through her life and left Hunter, a golden retriever, to friends. She painted, potted, read and wrote, and had dreams of being published.
In 2008 she was diagnosed with cancer and spent the next ten years fighting it with surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy, and the strength of her will, and her team of doctors and caregivers. She passed away peacefully at Serenity House on October 7, 2018, with her family by her side.
