Georgette "Maria" King
January 12, 1934 - January 13, 2021
Georgette Maria King, widow of W.H. King, Jr., was born in Wembay, Belgium on January 12, 1934. She was the daughter of Maria Hizzette of Wembay and Liege. She was left in the care of her maternal grandmother, Madame Pauline Poncur of Wembay. Madame Poncur raised her, and Georgette Maria considered her grandmother to be her "real" mother.
In 1940, when Georgette was 6, Hitler's army invaded Belgium on its way to the invasion of France. Wembay, where she and her grandmother lived, was in the path of the invading army. Wembay was occupied by the Nazis until liberated by the American Army in 1945. Her home was at a strategic intersection, the Germans used Georgette's grandmother's house as a field headquarters. Georgette literally grew up with her home occupied by Nazis. Often cold and hungry, she and her grandmother survived as best they could, trying not to enrage their deadly "guests" who lived in the houses two main floors as she and her grandmother were relegated to the attic.
In the winter of 1944-45 the house became a field hospital for the Germans. Their village was trapped in the Battle of the Bulge as the American Army began pushing the Germans out of Belgium and back into Germany. One of the largest and most deadly battles of World War II, it spanned December of 1944 January of 1945 and involved nearly a million men.
When the victorious American soldiers came through, they left behind them a population of Belgian children writhing in pain, bellies aching, vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. The soldiers tossed apples, candy and other high energy foods to the starving children who were cheering their arrival. Hungrily forging on the rich foods, the kids immediately began to writhe in pain, bellies rejecting the high caloric candies and strange fruits.
In the mid 1950's a contingent of NATO troops were stationed in Belgium. Among them was W. H. (Bill) King of Monticello, Arkansas. He was the Air Force enlisted men's liaison to NATO headquarters. Bill was staying near Liege, in a hotel owned by Georgette's Aunt Josie. Georgette Maria and Bill married February 23rd, in LaRoche, Belgium. Sadly, there were no men from her family to help celebrate the elaborate ceremony, they had all been killed by the Germans years before, lined up against a wall and shot with machine guns.
For years, Georgette Maria was a military wife, living in various states, then in Turkey, wherever Bill was sent. When she couldn't go with him, she held down the home front, taking care of his home and their two daughters. When stationed overseas, she didn't play golf and take advantage of cheap, household help. She cooked, cleaned, sewed and kept her own children, saving every penny she could. She was extremely frugal, allowing them to buy a home, cars for themselves and for each of their girls and put each girl through college with no cost to their daughters and no debt for themselves.
Georgette Maria had a day care, plus she and Bill were foster parents. Her hands were never idle. If she sat down, she was knitting or crocheting. Until her late husband got sick, they went to craft shows where she displayed and sold her knitted doll clothes. She also knitted matching scarves and caps for all ages. She sent big boxes of knitted sweaters and matching caps to various charities to be handed out to the needy in winter. She was a generous financial donor to several charities as well.
Georgette Maria was an animal rescue all by herself. She had numerous cats and dogs that she rescued and adopted and for years would make her own dog food. One day Bill, unusually hungry, decided he would help himself to a delicious smelling pot of stew simmering on the stove. He told her it needed a touch more seasoning, not realizing he had helped himself to her homemade dog food.
She told about the wonderful boxes of clothes, shoes, underwear and coats that came from America after the war. The amazing stories she heard of that magical place where people had all they wanted to eat, had good clothes, new cars and no enemy soldiers living in their houses. She never dreamed she would live here one day. She loved her adopted country. She was very outspoken about how spoiled young Americans are and how unappreciative they are for what they have. She never understood the desire to wear the "right" brands or the desire to go out to eat, or to go on a vacation. As long as you were warm in the winter the brand didn't matter. Why go out to eat when she had a freezer full of food and could cook? Why go on vacation when she had shuttled around the world? Why stay in a hotel when she had a good bed at home? She had watched planes dogfight in the sky over her home, she had seen a dead RAF airman fall from the sky and had worn panties made from his parachute. She had watched the Brit's retrieve his body from the grave under the pear tree where the villagers had buried him. She had hunted for limbs in the woods to burn in the stove and the snow began to move. Her grandmother quietly and calmly told her to head back to the house, remain quiet and pretend that the snowbanks weren't moving, don't look! The German Army, in their white snow-white camo was creeping through the forest. They were back! The Battle of the Bulge was upon them. She had a cozy home, her own yard and her animals. She had enough excitement to last a lifetime.
Georgette Maria (Ria) is survived locally by her caregiver and guardian, Susie Matheny; brother-in-law Donald Lee King (Diana); nephew Jason King; former sister-in-law and friend of 56 years, Mary Faye King; neighbor and friend Larry Hargis; neighbor and friend, Mark Pasternial; also surviving are 2 daughters, 2 granddaughters and 2 stepsons.
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