Ralph E. King

Ralph Elijah King, Sr. (June 16, 1902 – December 2, 1974),^[1] was a physician from Winnsboro, Louisiana, who served three non-consecutive terms in the Louisiana State Senate for Catahoula, Franklin, and Richland parishes from 1944 to 1952 and again from 1956 to 1960.^[2] His tenure of office corresponded with the first administration of Governor Jimmie Davis and the second and third terms of Earl Kemp Long, with whom King was politically allied.

In 1960, King was unseated by his fellow Democrat, J. C. Gilbert, a farmer from Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish, who years later switched his affiliation to Republican.

King and his brother, John William King, Jr. (1908-1969), were sons of John King, Sr. (1877-1955), and the former Ada Gregory (1881-1972). Dr. King's son, Ralph E. King, Jr. (1931-2006), was married to the former Mary Christine Sullivan (1932-1993); the couple had two daughters, Debra Ruth King (1953-1981) and Terri King Reboul (1956-2013). The Kings are interred at Myrtle Memorial Cemetery in Winnsboro.^[1]

In 2008, nearly thirty-four years after his death, Dr. King was posthumously recognized as an honorary pall-bearer at the funeral of his first Senate successor, Billy Boles of Monroe.^[3]

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