Dr. Ralph King Fatally Injured in Fall At Home

One of Richland County’s leading citizens, Dr. Ralph King, 67, died this morning, Monday, July 26, 1954, at Richland Memorial Hospital, where he was taken last night after falling from the back porch steps at his home at 227 S. Morgan St., about 8:30 p.m.

Dr. King made his annual appearance at the American Legion Chowder yesterday and was taking some of the chowder to friends in his neighborhood, when he lost his balance on the steps and fell to the concrete, receiving a severe skull fracture.

Moments later he was rushed to Richland Memorial Hospital where his condition was immediately pronounced critical and he died later in the early hours of the morning.

Dr. King graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School in 1916, beginning his practice as a member of the staff of the Olney Sanitarium in 1917. He was Commissioned a Captain in the Medical Corps in 1917, and served in France at the staff base hospital at Hyeres with the Army, almost a year. He returned from France in 1919 and resumed his practice with the Olney Sanitarium Clinic, leaving there on May 1, 1928 to open a private practice in Olney.

He had been very successful in his chosen profession, and many hundreds of people in this area will remember him for his kindly deeds and his devotion to his practice, making country calls in all kinds of weather to relieve the suffering he found.

He was a member of the Richland County Medical Association, the Elks, all the Masonic bodies in Olney as well as the Ainad Temple of the Mystic Shrine, the Consistory, The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the D.A.V., 40 et 8 and many other organizations.

He is survived by his wife, Nana (Wharf) King; two daughters, Mrs. Virginia K. MacGregor of Lexington Park, MD and Mrs. Patricia Nickel of Perry, OK. There are four grandchildren; one brother, Ed King of Lawrenceville and one sister, Mrs. Ardys Elder of Chicago.

Funeral arrangements at Schaub Funeral Home, Olney with burial in Haven Hill Cemetery.

Olney Daily Mail (IL)  –  Monday, July 26, 1954