Profile written by Wayne King.

Diane and I are both from the southwestern Jefferson County community of Pleasure Ridge Park (PRP), Kentucky where we met while attending PRP High School. Married in 1968, we celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary on Aug. 2, 2023. We currently reside in Shelbyville, Shelby Co., KY and have two adult children (Brian and Carrie) and four grandchildren (Reagan, Ella, Carter and Piper).

Our two adult children have done well in life. Our son, Brian (51), worked as a "computer person" for many years but grew tired of "the machine" and decided to pursue his other interest, truck farming. By the age of 50 he had paid off his 25 acre farm and built his own home as well as needed barns, sheds and greenhouses..

Our daughter. Carrie (44), is highly thought of as a nurse. She works in nursing homes and do to the nursing shortages has no trouble finding good paying jobs. Both of our children seem to enjoy their chosen profession.

All four of our grandchildren are doing quite well in school. The oldest, Reagan (Shelby Co. HS GPA = 3.7+). She is now in college studying to be a nurse like her mother. Working part time in a nursing home (nurse's assistant) she is described by her patients as being a "Sweetheart".

Ella is now a senior in at Shelby Co. High School, has a 4.0+ GPA, and is in the top 5 (GPA) of her class academically. Her school is located next to the community college and she has taken college classes the her junior and senior years. She will be the only student in her class to graduate from Shelby Co. HS with an Associate of Arts degree (A.A.). Ella will enter college as a junior on an academic scholarship (college yet undecided) and currently thinks wants to be a Christian family lawyer.

The youngest two, Carter (14) and Piper (13), are currently being home schooled. They too, are doing quite well academically and are way above the average for their counterparts in the public schools.

As you can see, my wife and I have been very blessed to have such wonderful children and grand-children . Needless to say, we are very proud of them.

Diane and I are both retired educators. Diane was a church preschool and kindergarten director for 17 years and prior to that was a daycare director. Though the years have been busy ones for her, she has always managed to find the time to be a wonderful Christian wife, mother and grandmother. The nicknames that our grandchildren have given us are "Mo Mo" and "Po Po", now shortened to "Mo" and "Po".

Raised in Jefferson Co., KY (Garvin Place in Louisville, Wilshire Ave in Riverside Gardens, Ralph Avenue in Louisville and Greenwood Rd in PRP), I was truly blessed to have wonderful, Godly parents (Mitchell R. King and Dorothy (Boyles) King). They were strict, yet loving. They "took" my siblings and myself to church "every time the doors were open". Both were active in church activities with my dad being a deacon as well as a Sunday School Superintendent and teacher at various times. During my teenage years my Mom and I sang in the church choir while my sister, Cheryl, played the church piano. Her piano teacher and friend was Judy Hudson and she played the church organ. Judy later became a music teacher in the Jefferson Co., Public School System.

Schooling was also a point of emphasis while growing up but we were not pressured. We were expected to attend school every day unless "deathly ill", to behave ourselves in the classroom and to do as well as we could in our studies. If we stayed home sick, which was seldom, we had to stay in bed all day.

Cane Run Ele. School (old building, grades 1-4, now raised) was the first school I attended. Later there was Alice Waller Ele. School (2nd half of 1st grade, now raised) and Greenwood Rd Ele. School (new building, grades 5-6). I was blessed with caring teachers who had high expectations in both academics and behavior. My wife, Diane, attended St. Helen Catholic School (grades 1-5) in Shively (KY), St. Paul Catholic School (grades (6-8) and then Pleasure Ridge Park High School (9-12).

I was blessed by being well prepared for college by my high school (PRP), taking advanced and superior courses managing a 3.2+ GPA while playing basketball. After graduation (1965) I attended Lees Junior College in Jackson, KY for one year and then transferred to Kentucky Southern College (KSC) in Louisville, KY. I graduated from KSC with a 3.2+ GPA in 1969 receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree as well as Kentucky Teacher Certification (social studies, psychology, health and PE). I turned down a graduate assistantship as I wanted to start my teaching and coaching immediately.

At both schools (Lees and KY Southern) I was fortunate to be a scholarship member of the basketball team. Once again I was truly blessed, having my college education paid for while being provided the opportunity to play a game that I truly loved & would later coach.

The junior high school, high school and college basketball coaches that I had for ten years (1959-69) had a profound effect on my life. They were Gary Young (PRP JHS), Bill Waddell (PRP HS), Gary Schaffer (PRP HS), Edgar Raleigh (Lees JC) and Gippy "Gip" Graham (KSC). I will always be thankful to each of them. Also, I am thankful for the wonderful teammates I had during those years, years that passed by all too quickly.

Gary Young, 4 years older that myself, played basketball and baseball at PRP while I was in junior high school. He was the first "older player" at PRP that I truly admired. Gary was my 7th and 8th grade coach in Optimist Leagues in both baseball and basketball. Coach Waddell (HS freshman coach) gave me some much needed basketball encouragement and the opportunity to be on the team during my first year (9th grade) in high school. I had failed to make PRP's 7th and 8th grade teams and I must say, rightfully so. The truth is that I had yet to develop physically and as a "rookie" player was just not very good.

Coach Gary Schaffer (PRP JV and later Varsity) also gave me much needed encouragement and showed unwavering faith in me during the three years (grades 10-12) that I played for him at PRP. I went from probably being the worse player on the freshman team to leading the varsity team in scoring and rebounding my senior year. At the end of my senior season I was named the team's MVP and All-District, accepting a basketball scholarship to Lees Junior College. I had received the Most Improved Player Award my junior year. Again, Coach Schaffer played a great part in my development both as an athlete and a person.

Coach Edgar Raleigh offered me a basketball scholarship at Lees Junior College in Jackson, KY, thus the chance to play my college basketball in state, something for which I will always be grateful. He is now in his late 80s and we remain good friends meeting for lunch
each year.

KSC Coach Gippy Graham was like a second father to me (strict, yet caring) during my three years at Ky Southern. After coaching he became a KY state legislator and later the Mayor of Frankfort (KY), his hometown. He is now 95! We also remain good friends and meet several times a year for lunch in Frankfort with other former KSC teammates.

As mentioned earlier, I am also thankful for the outstanding teammates that I had during my high school and college years. Unfortunately, I have lost contact with many of them and several of them have passed away. I still have the opportunity to meet with some of my former coaches, teachers and teammates several times a year.

Most of my graduate study was done at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY, the school from which I earned my Masters Degree (MS), later my Rank I and administration certification. I also attended graduate classes at Western Kentucky University and Georgetown College, obtaining certification in special education, counseling and as a Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP). I have a total of 99 graduate hours with a 3.9+ GPA.

Following graduation from college I was privileged to serve 35+ years as a teacher and administrator in the public school system, most of those years in the Anderson County Schools in Lawrenceburg, KY. During those years I had the opportunity to work with many wonderful fellow educators and thousands of students.

My career in education started at Butler High School in Louisville, KY as a special education (EMH) teacher. I was also an assistant basketball coach for three years at Butler working with head coach, Lonnie Willoughby. During that three year period we had excellent teams. Lonnie was not only a basketball coaching mentor but was also a good friend. He was a very caring person.

At age 25, I was offered the opportunity to become an assistant basketball coach in college. Diane and I moved to Charleston, SC where I coached at Charleston Southern University. It took only one year to realize that being an assistant in college was not all that it was cracked up to be. Being on the road much of the time (scouting and recruiting) while also coaching the freshman/JV team and assisting with the varsity kept me quite busy. Fortunately, I did was not required to teach any classes.

My experience at Charleston Southern was definitely beneficial to me in several ways. Most of all, it helped me realize that I was an incurable homebody and that Diane and I both missed our home state of Kentucky.

At age 26, I returned to Kentucky, accepting the head coaching position for boys basketball at Anderson Co. High School (ACHS) in Lawrenceburg. There I taught both Health and Physical Education.

My wife, Diane, got saved (accepted Jesus as her Saviour) at age 26. At the same time I rededicated by life to Jesus and we joined the First Baptist Church of Lawenceburg. Rev. Bob Jones was our Pastor.

In my first year at ACHS we had only a 5'8 part time starter returning from the previous year, however, we had a good JV team to add him too. To everyone's surprise, including my own, we won both the district and regional basketball tournaments that first year and represented the 8th Region in the Kentucky State Basketball Tournament.

The next year, at age 27, I became an assistant principal at ACHS while still coaching a basketball team that ranked in the top 15 during most of the season. Being an assistant principal, teaching four classes, attending graduate school and coaching basketball made for a very busy year! At age 28, I gave up my head coaching position when I was offered the position of head principal at Anderson Co. High School.

After four years as the high school (ACHS) principal the middle school (AMS) job came open. I requested the move to the open principal's position at Anderson Middle, a position that I would hold for 12 years.

I then moved to the Board of Education as Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP) for 14 years, working for Ronald "Sonny" Fentress, one of the all-time great school superintendents in the state of Kentucky and I might add, another good friend. During that time I started coaching again, helping a former ACHS player (Tony Kays), coaching the girls basketball program at both the middle school and the high school (FR and JV) as well as assisting with our outstanding varsity teams.

After retiring in 2005 at age 58, I worked part-time in the Anderson School System as a substitute teacher, primarily at the high school and the alternative school, and even filled in as DPP for Anderson County twice, once for a full year and once for a spring. The same position (DPP) was also offered (and accepted) to me for one year in the Woodford Co. School System in Versailles, Kentucky.

Though officially retired I eventually continued to coach basketball, helping ACHS's highly successful head coach, Tony Kays, with the girls HS basketball team. We were blessed to win 20+ games (34-2 one year!) eight years in a row and make it to the State Tournament several times. After eight 20 win seasons our string was broken by a team that won only 19 games. When our head coach gave up coaching basketball in 2014, I did likewise.

That pretty much concludes all you "never wanted to know" about my life on this earth, a life that has been truly blessed.

Diane (my # 1 supporter) and I are now both 77 years of age. Although we are blessed with reasonably good health, we realize that our time on earth is running out. Someday soon our souls will be moving on to Heaven to be with Jesus and God as well as our Christian loved ones and friends. My question to you is this: Where will you be spending eternity?

One of our hobbies is the history/genealogy of our families. Consequently, most of the memorials we have created and/or maintain on Find-a-Grave are family. We are always glad to get corrections and/or additional information in regard to the members of our families who came before us.

Profile written by Wayne King.

Diane and I are both from the southwestern Jefferson County community of Pleasure Ridge Park (PRP), Kentucky where we met while attending PRP High School. Married in 1968, we celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary on Aug. 2, 2023. We currently reside in Shelbyville, Shelby Co., KY and have two adult children (Brian and Carrie) and four grandchildren (Reagan, Ella, Carter and Piper).

Our two adult children have done well in life. Our son, Brian (51), worked as a "computer person" for many years but grew tired of "the machine" and decided to pursue his other interest, truck farming. By the age of 50 he had paid off his 25 acre farm and built his own home as well as needed barns, sheds and greenhouses..

Our daughter. Carrie (44), is highly thought of as a nurse. She works in nursing homes and do to the nursing shortages has no trouble finding good paying jobs. Both of our children seem to enjoy their chosen profession.

All four of our grandchildren are doing quite well in school. The oldest, Reagan (Shelby Co. HS GPA = 3.7+). She is now in college studying to be a nurse like her mother. Working part time in a nursing home (nurse's assistant) she is described by her patients as being a "Sweetheart".

Ella is now a senior in at Shelby Co. High School, has a 4.0+ GPA, and is in the top 5 (GPA) of her class academically. Her school is located next to the community college and she has taken college classes the her junior and senior years. She will be the only student in her class to graduate from Shelby Co. HS with an Associate of Arts degree (A.A.). Ella will enter college as a junior on an academic scholarship (college yet undecided) and currently thinks wants to be a Christian family lawyer.

The youngest two, Carter (14) and Piper (13), are currently being home schooled. They too, are doing quite well academically and are way above the average for their counterparts in the public schools.

As you can see, my wife and I have been very blessed to have such wonderful children and grand-children . Needless to say, we are very proud of them.

Diane and I are both retired educators. Diane was a church preschool and kindergarten director for 17 years and prior to that was a daycare director. Though the years have been busy ones for her, she has always managed to find the time to be a wonderful Christian wife, mother and grandmother. The nicknames that our grandchildren have given us are "Mo Mo" and "Po Po", now shortened to "Mo" and "Po".

Raised in Jefferson Co., KY (Garvin Place in Louisville, Wilshire Ave in Riverside Gardens, Ralph Avenue in Louisville and Greenwood Rd in PRP), I was truly blessed to have wonderful, Godly parents (Mitchell R. King and Dorothy (Boyles) King). They were strict, yet loving. They "took" my siblings and myself to church "every time the doors were open". Both were active in church activities with my dad being a deacon as well as a Sunday School Superintendent and teacher at various times. During my teenage years my Mom and I sang in the church choir while my sister, Cheryl, played the church piano. Her piano teacher and friend was Judy Hudson and she played the church organ. Judy later became a music teacher in the Jefferson Co., Public School System.

Schooling was also a point of emphasis while growing up but we were not pressured. We were expected to attend school every day unless "deathly ill", to behave ourselves in the classroom and to do as well as we could in our studies. If we stayed home sick, which was seldom, we had to stay in bed all day.

Cane Run Ele. School (old building, grades 1-4, now raised) was the first school I attended. Later there was Alice Waller Ele. School (2nd half of 1st grade, now raised) and Greenwood Rd Ele. School (new building, grades 5-6). I was blessed with caring teachers who had high expectations in both academics and behavior. My wife, Diane, attended St. Helen Catholic School (grades 1-5) in Shively (KY), St. Paul Catholic School (grades (6-8) and then Pleasure Ridge Park High School (9-12).

I was blessed by being well prepared for college by my high school (PRP), taking advanced and superior courses managing a 3.2+ GPA while playing basketball. After graduation (1965) I attended Lees Junior College in Jackson, KY for one year and then transferred to Kentucky Southern College (KSC) in Louisville, KY. I graduated from KSC with a 3.2+ GPA in 1969 receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree as well as Kentucky Teacher Certification (social studies, psychology, health and PE). I turned down a graduate assistantship as I wanted to start my teaching and coaching immediately.

At both schools (Lees and KY Southern) I was fortunate to be a scholarship member of the basketball team. Once again I was truly blessed, having my college education paid for while being provided the opportunity to play a game that I truly loved & would later coach.

The junior high school, high school and college basketball coaches that I had for ten years (1959-69) had a profound effect on my life. They were Gary Young (PRP JHS), Bill Waddell (PRP HS), Gary Schaffer (PRP HS), Edgar Raleigh (Lees JC) and Gippy "Gip" Graham (KSC). I will always be thankful to each of them. Also, I am thankful for the wonderful teammates I had during those years, years that passed by all too quickly.

Gary Young, 4 years older that myself, played basketball and baseball at PRP while I was in junior high school. He was the first "older player" at PRP that I truly admired. Gary was my 7th and 8th grade coach in Optimist Leagues in both baseball and basketball. Coach Waddell (HS freshman coach) gave me some much needed basketball encouragement and the opportunity to be on the team during my first year (9th grade) in high school. I had failed to make PRP's 7th and 8th grade teams and I must say, rightfully so. The truth is that I had yet to develop physically and as a "rookie" player was just not very good.

Coach Gary Schaffer (PRP JV and later Varsity) also gave me much needed encouragement and showed unwavering faith in me during the three years (grades 10-12) that I played for him at PRP. I went from probably being the worse player on the freshman team to leading the varsity team in scoring and rebounding my senior year. At the end of my senior season I was named the team's MVP and All-District, accepting a basketball scholarship to Lees Junior College. I had received the Most Improved Player Award my junior year. Again, Coach Schaffer played a great part in my development both as an athlete and a person.

Coach Edgar Raleigh offered me a basketball scholarship at Lees Junior College in Jackson, KY, thus the chance to play my college basketball in state, something for which I will always be grateful. He is now in his late 80s and we remain good friends meeting for lunch
each year.

KSC Coach Gippy Graham was like a second father to me (strict, yet caring) during my three years at Ky Southern. After coaching he became a KY state legislator and later the Mayor of Frankfort (KY), his hometown. He is now 95! We also remain good friends and meet several times a year for lunch in Frankfort with other former KSC teammates.

As mentioned earlier, I am also thankful for the outstanding teammates that I had during my high school and college years. Unfortunately, I have lost contact with many of them and several of them have passed away. I still have the opportunity to meet with some of my former coaches, teachers and teammates several times a year.

Most of my graduate study was done at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY, the school from which I earned my Masters Degree (MS), later my Rank I and administration certification. I also attended graduate classes at Western Kentucky University and Georgetown College, obtaining certification in special education, counseling and as a Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP). I have a total of 99 graduate hours with a 3.9+ GPA.

Following graduation from college I was privileged to serve 35+ years as a teacher and administrator in the public school system, most of those years in the Anderson County Schools in Lawrenceburg, KY. During those years I had the opportunity to work with many wonderful fellow educators and thousands of students.

My career in education started at Butler High School in Louisville, KY as a special education (EMH) teacher. I was also an assistant basketball coach for three years at Butler working with head coach, Lonnie Willoughby. During that three year period we had excellent teams. Lonnie was not only a basketball coaching mentor but was also a good friend. He was a very caring person.

At age 25, I was offered the opportunity to become an assistant basketball coach in college. Diane and I moved to Charleston, SC where I coached at Charleston Southern University. It took only one year to realize that being an assistant in college was not all that it was cracked up to be. Being on the road much of the time (scouting and recruiting) while also coaching the freshman/JV team and assisting with the varsity kept me quite busy. Fortunately, I did was not required to teach any classes.

My experience at Charleston Southern was definitely beneficial to me in several ways. Most of all, it helped me realize that I was an incurable homebody and that Diane and I both missed our home state of Kentucky.

At age 26, I returned to Kentucky, accepting the head coaching position for boys basketball at Anderson Co. High School (ACHS) in Lawrenceburg. There I taught both Health and Physical Education.

My wife, Diane, got saved (accepted Jesus as her Saviour) at age 26. At the same time I rededicated by life to Jesus and we joined the First Baptist Church of Lawenceburg. Rev. Bob Jones was our Pastor.

In my first year at ACHS we had only a 5'8 part time starter returning from the previous year, however, we had a good JV team to add him too. To everyone's surprise, including my own, we won both the district and regional basketball tournaments that first year and represented the 8th Region in the Kentucky State Basketball Tournament.

The next year, at age 27, I became an assistant principal at ACHS while still coaching a basketball team that ranked in the top 15 during most of the season. Being an assistant principal, teaching four classes, attending graduate school and coaching basketball made for a very busy year! At age 28, I gave up my head coaching position when I was offered the position of head principal at Anderson Co. High School.

After four years as the high school (ACHS) principal the middle school (AMS) job came open. I requested the move to the open principal's position at Anderson Middle, a position that I would hold for 12 years.

I then moved to the Board of Education as Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP) for 14 years, working for Ronald "Sonny" Fentress, one of the all-time great school superintendents in the state of Kentucky and I might add, another good friend. During that time I started coaching again, helping a former ACHS player (Tony Kays), coaching the girls basketball program at both the middle school and the high school (FR and JV) as well as assisting with our outstanding varsity teams.

After retiring in 2005 at age 58, I worked part-time in the Anderson School System as a substitute teacher, primarily at the high school and the alternative school, and even filled in as DPP for Anderson County twice, once for a full year and once for a spring. The same position (DPP) was also offered (and accepted) to me for one year in the Woodford Co. School System in Versailles, Kentucky.

Though officially retired I eventually continued to coach basketball, helping ACHS's highly successful head coach, Tony Kays, with the girls HS basketball team. We were blessed to win 20+ games (34-2 one year!) eight years in a row and make it to the State Tournament several times. After eight 20 win seasons our string was broken by a team that won only 19 games. When our head coach gave up coaching basketball in 2014, I did likewise.

That pretty much concludes all you "never wanted to know" about my life on this earth, a life that has been truly blessed.

Diane (my # 1 supporter) and I are now both 77 years of age. Although we are blessed with reasonably good health, we realize that our time on earth is running out. Someday soon our souls will be moving on to Heaven to be with Jesus and God as well as our Christian loved ones and friends. My question to you is this: Where will you be spending eternity?

One of our hobbies is the history/genealogy of our families. Consequently, most of the memorials we have created and/or maintain on Find-a-Grave are family. We are always glad to get corrections and/or additional information in regard to the members of our families who came before us.