Recorded by Len Harrell, husband to Frank King's daughter, Jacqueline.
The first time I met Frank King was when I arrived at the King residence to pick up Jackie for our first date. I remember Mr. King as being gruff and, as I sat in the living room with him waiting for Jackie to finish dressing, he did not speak to me. The silence made me very uncomfortable. I told Jackie afterwards to be ready to leave the house when I arrived to pick her up in the future. The other thing I remember specifically about that first meeting was that his hands were HUGE. When I shook hands with him, I felt like a child placing my hand in the hand of an adult.
Mr. King (as I always called him) was not a very talkative man. I got to know him better after I later married Jackie. I had a great deal of respect for him. Even though he had limited formal education, he was one of the smartest men I have ever known. He seemed to have innate ability in working with tools and machines. He owned and operated a small gasoline station and lawnmower repair/parts shop in the town of Albany. I worked for him while I was in college. He suffered from artritis in his hands and sometimes when he had a flare-up, he could hardly hold a wrench. I had two good hands, but no mechanical knowledge. He would sit beside me and tell me what to do to repari the particular piece of equipment we were working on. The effort was hampered by his referring to various parts as "what-cha-ma-call-its." He would get frustrated when I did not know to which "what-cha-ma-call-it" he was referring.
Frank and Mary's house was destroyed in a tornado in the early 1950's. Frank, afterwards, started building a new home while the family lived in temporarily in an old house on his property. He and his brother Alex built the home. However, most of the lumber came from trees Frank cut off his property. He used his farm tractor to drag the logs to a small sawmill he had put up and he sawed the lumber for the house. He took the rough cut boards to a local professional sawmill plane and dry in a kiln.
Mr. King lived most of his married life directly across the road from his parents. After his father's death, he was always there to help out when his mother needed things done. His wife carried on this practice in seeing to his elderly mother even after his death.
He spoke Hungarian fluently and also had a significant command of the English language. One hobby was the working of the crossword puzzles in the newspapers. His vast vocabulary allowed him to do them quickly with only infrequent use of the dictionary as a reference.
I remember helping Frank (Mr. King) and his brother-in-law, Mike Odor dig a well at Mike's new home. The well was drilled using a jet of water pushed through the drilling pipe by a gasoline engine powered water pump. The soil was not rocky, so this was possible to do. We dug a hole for a pool of water to run through the pump and built a frame above the drill site to be able to add pipe to the drill stem as we went down. We drilled until we reached good water. As I remember, it was between 60 and 100 feet deep.
Mr. King believe in credit. If he did not have the money, he simply did not purchase an item until he did. His estate was easy to settle after he died because he did not owe anyone.
The first time I met Frank King was when I arrived at the King residence to pick up Jackie for our first date. I remember Mr. King as being gruff and, as I sat in the living room with him waiting for Jackie to finish dressing, he did not speak to me. The silence made me very uncomfortable. I told Jackie afterwards to be ready to leave the house when I arrived to pick her up in the future. The other thing I remember specifically about that first meeting was that his hands were HUGE. When I shook hands with him, I felt like a child placing my hand in the hand of an adult.
Mr. King (as I always called him) was not a very talkative man. I got to know him better after I later married Jackie. I had a great deal of respect for him. Even though he had limited formal education, he was one of the smartest men I have ever known. He seemed to have innate ability in working with tools and machines. He owned and operated a small gasoline station and lawnmower repair/parts shop in the town of Albany. I worked for him while I was in college. He suffered from artritis in his hands and sometimes when he had a flare-up, he could hardly hold a wrench. I had two good hands, but no mechanical knowledge. He would sit beside me and tell me what to do to repari the particular piece of equipment we were working on. The effort was hampered by his referring to various parts as "what-cha-ma-call-its." He would get frustrated when I did not know to which "what-cha-ma-call-it" he was referring.
Frank and Mary's house was destroyed in a tornado in the early 1950's. Frank, afterwards, started building a new home while the family lived in temporarily in an old house on his property. He and his brother Alex built the home. However, most of the lumber came from trees Frank cut off his property. He used his farm tractor to drag the logs to a small sawmill he had put up and he sawed the lumber for the house. He took the rough cut boards to a local professional sawmill plane and dry in a kiln.
Mr. King lived most of his married life directly across the road from his parents. After his father's death, he was always there to help out when his mother needed things done. His wife carried on this practice in seeing to his elderly mother even after his death.
He spoke Hungarian fluently and also had a significant command of the English language. One hobby was the working of the crossword puzzles in the newspapers. His vast vocabulary allowed him to do them quickly with only infrequent use of the dictionary as a reference.
I remember helping Frank (Mr. King) and his brother-in-law, Mike Odor dig a well at Mike's new home. The well was drilled using a jet of water pushed through the drilling pipe by a gasoline engine powered water pump. The soil was not rocky, so this was possible to do. We dug a hole for a pool of water to run through the pump and built a frame above the drill site to be able to add pipe to the drill stem as we went down. We drilled until we reached good water. As I remember, it was between 60 and 100 feet deep.
Mr. King believe in credit. If he did not have the money, he simply did not purchase an item until he did. His estate was easy to settle after he died because he did not owe anyone.
Recorded by Len Harrell, husband to Frank King's daughter, Jacqueline.
The first time I met Frank King was when I arrived at the King residence to pick up Jackie for our first date. I remember Mr. King as being gruff and, as I sat in the living room with him waiting for Jackie to finish dressing, he did not speak to me. The silence made me very uncomfortable. I told Jackie afterwards to be ready to leave the house when I arrived to pick her up in the future. The other thing I remember specifically about that first meeting was that his hands were HUGE. When I shook hands with him, I felt like a child placing my hand in the hand of an adult.
Mr. King (as I always called him) was not a very talkative man. I got to know him better after I later married Jackie. I had a great deal of respect for him. Even though he had limited formal education, he was one of the smartest men I have ever known. He seemed to have innate ability in working with tools and machines. He owned and operated a small gasoline station and lawnmower repair/parts shop in the town of Albany. I worked for him while I was in college. He suffered from artritis in his hands and sometimes when he had a flare-up, he could hardly hold a wrench. I had two good hands, but no mechanical knowledge. He would sit beside me and tell me what to do to repari the particular piece of equipment we were working on. The effort was hampered by his referring to various parts as "what-cha-ma-call-its." He would get frustrated when I did not know to which "what-cha-ma-call-it" he was referring.
Frank and Mary's house was destroyed in a tornado in the early 1950's. Frank, afterwards, started building a new home while the family lived in temporarily in an old house on his property. He and his brother Alex built the home. However, most of the lumber came from trees Frank cut off his property. He used his farm tractor to drag the logs to a small sawmill he had put up and he sawed the lumber for the house. He took the rough cut boards to a local professional sawmill plane and dry in a kiln.
Mr. King lived most of his married life directly across the road from his parents. After his father's death, he was always there to help out when his mother needed things done. His wife carried on this practice in seeing to his elderly mother even after his death.
He spoke Hungarian fluently and also had a significant command of the English language. One hobby was the working of the crossword puzzles in the newspapers. His vast vocabulary allowed him to do them quickly with only infrequent use of the dictionary as a reference.
I remember helping Frank (Mr. King) and his brother-in-law, Mike Odor dig a well at Mike's new home. The well was drilled using a jet of water pushed through the drilling pipe by a gasoline engine powered water pump. The soil was not rocky, so this was possible to do. We dug a hole for a pool of water to run through the pump and built a frame above the drill site to be able to add pipe to the drill stem as we went down. We drilled until we reached good water. As I remember, it was between 60 and 100 feet deep.
Mr. King believe in credit. If he did not have the money, he simply did not purchase an item until he did. His estate was easy to settle after he died because he did not owe anyone.
The first time I met Frank King was when I arrived at the King residence to pick up Jackie for our first date. I remember Mr. King as being gruff and, as I sat in the living room with him waiting for Jackie to finish dressing, he did not speak to me. The silence made me very uncomfortable. I told Jackie afterwards to be ready to leave the house when I arrived to pick her up in the future. The other thing I remember specifically about that first meeting was that his hands were HUGE. When I shook hands with him, I felt like a child placing my hand in the hand of an adult.
Mr. King (as I always called him) was not a very talkative man. I got to know him better after I later married Jackie. I had a great deal of respect for him. Even though he had limited formal education, he was one of the smartest men I have ever known. He seemed to have innate ability in working with tools and machines. He owned and operated a small gasoline station and lawnmower repair/parts shop in the town of Albany. I worked for him while I was in college. He suffered from artritis in his hands and sometimes when he had a flare-up, he could hardly hold a wrench. I had two good hands, but no mechanical knowledge. He would sit beside me and tell me what to do to repari the particular piece of equipment we were working on. The effort was hampered by his referring to various parts as "what-cha-ma-call-its." He would get frustrated when I did not know to which "what-cha-ma-call-it" he was referring.
Frank and Mary's house was destroyed in a tornado in the early 1950's. Frank, afterwards, started building a new home while the family lived in temporarily in an old house on his property. He and his brother Alex built the home. However, most of the lumber came from trees Frank cut off his property. He used his farm tractor to drag the logs to a small sawmill he had put up and he sawed the lumber for the house. He took the rough cut boards to a local professional sawmill plane and dry in a kiln.
Mr. King lived most of his married life directly across the road from his parents. After his father's death, he was always there to help out when his mother needed things done. His wife carried on this practice in seeing to his elderly mother even after his death.
He spoke Hungarian fluently and also had a significant command of the English language. One hobby was the working of the crossword puzzles in the newspapers. His vast vocabulary allowed him to do them quickly with only infrequent use of the dictionary as a reference.
I remember helping Frank (Mr. King) and his brother-in-law, Mike Odor dig a well at Mike's new home. The well was drilled using a jet of water pushed through the drilling pipe by a gasoline engine powered water pump. The soil was not rocky, so this was possible to do. We dug a hole for a pool of water to run through the pump and built a frame above the drill site to be able to add pipe to the drill stem as we went down. We drilled until we reached good water. As I remember, it was between 60 and 100 feet deep.
Mr. King believe in credit. If he did not have the money, he simply did not purchase an item until he did. His estate was easy to settle after he died because he did not owe anyone.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
