Mary Jane King

MARY JANE KING MUSCATINE, Iowa - Mary Jane (VanDyke) King, 92, of Muscatine, died on Tuesday, December 4, 2012, at Trinity Hospital - Muscatine. There will be no visitation or service. The Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangement. Mary Jane was born on February 5, 1920, in Muscatine, of parents Robert and Vera VanDyke. She graduated from Muscatine High School in 1937 and went on to graduate from Muscatine Community College in 1939. She was married to John Kochneff and later to Charles King. During World War II, when John was in the service, she lived in New York and later in San Francisco where she worked as a telephone operator while John served in the Pacific. At wars end they moved back to Muscatine. After marrying Charles King she went back to school to earn a BA degree and her teaching certificate. Mary Jane used her teaching degree to teach in area one room country schools and later the 5th grade at Grant elementary school. She often took her family for road trips to historic and scenic locations in the Midwest and out West to the Grand Canyon and California where friends lived. In 1963, she moved to Grand J...[more]

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tion Colorado where she continued to do what she enjoyed and taught middle school there until her retirement. She loved the West, the mountains and the scenery, always trying to have a house or apartment with a view of the surrounding mountains including her favorites the beautiful Colorado National Monument and Grand Mesa. She liked to take visiting family and friends to see the sights. Going along with her love of the West she was always reading old westerns, particularly those written by Louis L'amour. After 28 years in Grand Junction, Colorado, she wanted a change of scenery and moved to be near some friends in Fort Bragg, California. She stayed there for 3 years. When she found out her long time teaching friend from Grand Junction was having health problems, she decided to move to where her friend resided so she could assist in her care. As a result, she resided in Lead, South Dakota, where she lived for 10 years in the scenic Black Hills Mountains that she loved. She moved back to Muscatine in 2004, to be close to family and friends She is survived by two sons, John Thomas Kochneff and Jeff King with his wife, Haydee; her granddaughter, Jacqueline King and her husband, Jeff Murr, of Raleigh, North Carolina; a step-daughter, Sherry King who resides in Muscatine; and five step-grandchildren, Ty Parchert, Darcee Parchert, Kory Brown, Gary Brown, and Terrin Brown. She was preceded in death by her parents; one sister, Jean (VanDyke) Russell; and a step-son, Charles Douglas "Doug" King.