Moriarty: Hosting King funeral 'an honor'

Posted at: 11/20/2009 10:34 PM | Updated at: 11/21/2009 10:17 AM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

A small New Mexico town prepares for the funeral of a larger-than-life political legend, and a visit from one of his best pals, a former president of the United States.

Governor Bruce King's funeral will take place on Saturday morning, with Bill Clinton there to say goodbye.

Generations of Kings have attended school in Moriarty— many of them playing sports in the high school gym, where they had services for Bruce's wife Alice last December.

Final preparations to convert the Moriarty Pintos' basketball court into an extra-large sized funeral parlor—a labor of love dedicated to a man whose life was extra large.

Bruce King never moved away from the nearby family ranch, except to serve in the Army in World War II and serve three terms as governor in Santa Fe. Now, the local folks will give him a proper send-off.

"This is an honor for us," Torrance County Sheriff Clarence Gibson said Friday. "We don't look at it as taxing. We'll bring out every available resource to make sure Bruce King is remembered in the way he should be, as an icon in New Mexico, and that the King family has their day."

The high school gym has seating for 1,200 on the floor, with hundreds more on the bench seats along the sides.

School Superintendent Karen Couch said, "We were asked by the King family to host the funeral service, and of course we were very happy to do that, because the King family is near and dear to our hearts. They're very much a part of the community, and everybody loves the family." The cowboy governor attended many a Pintos game in the gym, and on the football field next door. Now, he'll be back one last time, so the people who knew him best and loved him can say goodbye.

Funeral services are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Doors will open around 8, and once the gym reaches capacity, nobody else will be let in.

Bruce King will be buried next to his wife Alice in the cemetery at Stanley, the tiny crossroads settlement near the King Brothers Ranch, a few miles from Moriarty.

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