Emily Jean King

Emily Jean King, the second child of James Simonson Turner and Lorna Doone Turnbull(Turner) was born June 4th, 1929, in Florenceville, New Brunswick at home on the Turner family homestead with Dr. Hagerman attending. She died in North York, Ontario on Friday April 30th, 2023 at 5:55 pm in North York General Hospital.

From the beginning of her life Emily Jean, who liked to be called Jean, was a bright and social being. She loved to reminisce and tell stories of times spent with her friends having picnics and swimming in the Becaguimec River in Hartland, New Brunswick where she did most of her growing up. She also spoke of enjoyable times with her Mom, Dad and older sister Joline and would get a twinkle in her eye remembering fun had with her five Perry cousins when the family travelled to her Mom’s sister Helen Perry’s home north of Connell, New Brunswick for Sunday dinners. As well as being fond of social times Jean had a natural curiosity about life and was eager to start school. Her education began in a one room school house in Victoria Corner, New Brunswick where her family lived while she was four to eight years old. As Jean entered grade three the family moved to Hartland, New Brunswick where they remained. Excelling in school Jean maintained grades in the 90’s until she graduated from Hartland High School in 1946 at age 17. In that same year she applied and was accepted at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. There she studied and completed her Bachelor of Education Degree and met the man who was to become her devoted husband of 67 years, Lindsay George King. Some of the happiest times of Jean’s life were had while attending Mount Allison. She developed dear friends, attended many dances and social events, and fell in love. In 1950 she graduated from Mount Allison and became engaged to Lindsay. Subsequently she moved to Nova Scotia to be near him and worked in a bank in Halifax while he completed his Bachelor of Divinity Degree at Pine Hill College. Jean and Lindsay were then married in Truro, Nova Scotia September 6th, 1952. Shortly after her marriage and honeymoon that followed on Prince Edward Island Jean found herself on her way to Happy Valley, Goose Bay, Labrador where Lindsay was given his first United Church ministerial post. While Lindsay developed the United Church Congregation there Jean taught primary grade school, endured living in a tar paper shack which in the winter time had snow completely covering the front door, baked many a loaf of bread which not only her husband but the village enjoyed, went through many adventures including having to row a large motorboat with a shut down engine back to shore in a storm and added her bright light to the community. In 1953 Jean followed Lindsay to Boston where she worked as a librarian while he completed his masters of Divinity and was given an honorary STM. In 1955 Jean again followed Lindsay to his next ministerial post in Tied Head, New Brunswick. Discovering by this time that the job of a minister’s wife was a full time occupation she delved deeply into it there. During this time she also went through a difficult pregnancy that at six months in required surgery. Fortunately both she and her daughter Catherine Jean’s lives were saved and Catherine was born having gone full term on April 1st,1956. In 1958 Lindsay was offered a post as assistant minister at Cedar Park United Church in Pointe Claire, a suburb of Montreal, Quebec. Here Jean continued her duties as a ministers wife and gave birth to she and Lindsay’s second child Lindsay Turner King on December 28th, 1958. Both the pregnancy and the birth went well. Then in 1961 Jean followed Lindsay when he was called to take the position as minister at Iondale Heights United Church in Scarborough, Ontario. Jean’s life here continued  to be full raising two young children, working in the U.C.W.( United Church Women), singing in the choir and taking care of the household. In 1966 after five years at Iondale Lindsay was offered a post at Willowdale United Church in North York. A year after this move Jean decided that she was ready to go back to teaching. In order to do that she had to redo teachers college since she was now in the province of Ontario. That was not an easy year but she got through it and started back into her profession as a substitute teacher. It did not take her long to establish a full time teaching position in the primary grades and several years later she educated herself again obtaining a Master’s Degree in Special Education. With these years of experience and education behind her Jean had now become an exceptional teacher and her educational skills and talents were acknowledged by her colleagues. One of her fellow teachers Mary Martin commented that “Jean had a true love of children, knew how to combine fun and learning, how to interact with parents and the rest of the school, and how to do those long involved report cards.” Mary said that “being able to teach in a classroom next to Jean was better than any additional qualification course.” After teaching for almost 30 years at various public schools in North York such as Finch Avenue, Kingslake and Lillian Jean retired from teaching at age 65 in 1994. However her greatly appreciated teaching skills led her to be asked to return to do work with special needs children one on one. This job required travelling all over Toronto including Toronto Island to work with those students and Jean took on the driving involved happily. She did this teaching work until age 72 when she unfortunately had a heart attack and realized that it was time to slow down. For Jean slowing down did not at all mean coming to a standstill. She became a very active member of the Retired Teachers Association participating in many activities like playing bridge and took on responsibilities such as organizing group trips to theatrical events and serving time as Treasurer. During these years she also embraced travel, enjoyed attending Thornhill United Church, spent time with friends, cherished visits with family who lived from the Canadian West coast to East and loved being a dedicated grandmother. Family was always the most important thing to Jean and she made sure that every family member knew how much they were loved. The last five years of her life due to Dementia for both she and her husband Lindsay she and Lindsay shared a home with their son Turner, Daughter-in-law Farah, and grandson Tyler where they were well taken care of. Jean carried on being social, made regular phone calls to her family and friends and went out for daily walks right up until her last days. Those who knew her were blessed to be warmed by her caring heart and beautiful smile. She was a lady of grace, had a good sense of humour and always looked neat as a pin. People often commented on how well she was put together. She left this world at age 93 having experienced vast changes from the beginning of her days where she recalled  the family’s transportation shifting from horse and cart to their first car( a Ford) and where  communication was done by rotary phone and letter to todays world where people travel in fast cars and communicate over the internet via email, audio and video call and over cell phone.

Jean is survived and will be forever loved, remembered and greatly missed by her daughter Catherine King, her son Turner King(Farah), Grandchildren Neda King(Tyler), Sahar Narlidis(Yiannis), Tyler King(Abby), step grand children Shauna Adams(Emilio), Shane Adams, great grandchildren Carter King Grafen, Dienekes Narlidis, Odyssea Narlidis, and step great grand children Tuva Englund, Ruben, Englund, Ronja Perez Iznaga and Tilde Perez Iznaga.

The Celebration of Life for Jean will be held at Jubilee United Church, 40 Underhill Drive, North York at 4:00 pm on June 4th, 2024.