news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The unexpected death Friday of the Rev. Vernon C. King,  a nephew of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,  has left his St. James Baptist Church congregation shocked and grieving.

Vernon King, 48 , had been pastor at the West Florida Street church for eight years and was well liked, said Ron Galloway,  chairman  of the church's board of deacons.

“He had a very good heart,” Galloway said. “I just can’t talk about it very easy. Right now, this is hard for our congregation.”

Galloway and others at St. James said they will miss King's thoughtful sermons, approachable demeanor, and kind way with children and older members of the church.

Last year, on the 40th anniversary of his uncle’s assassination, Vernon King spoke passionately about his memories of the night it happened and the shock waves it sent across the nation.

He was just 7 years old and living in Louisville, Ky., when his teary-eyed mother announced, “Uncle M.L. is dead.”

His own father, the Rev. Albert King,  would die the next year. Years later, his death would be followed by that of his grandmother, who was shot and killed as she played the organ during a church service.

Vernon King said their deaths had made him wonder if there was a “King curse.”

“I went to my pastor and I questioned God,” Vernon King said last year. “I said, 'Why is it that we are having a family member die probably on average every four years, and my friends, who don’t go to church, their family is still alive?’

“But I began to understand that death is a part of life,” he said.

Several St. James members said the younger King died at his home after going to bed.

He had been hospitalized recently, but “to my knowledge it wasn’t anything serious,” said Denise H. Allen,  the church’s office manager.

She asked about his health as recently as Friday afternoon, and “he just said that he was doing good,” Allen said.

Several members of the congregation said they appreciated the minister's down-to-earth personality.

“He was a person I could talk to and always feel comfortable with,” said Jimmie Leak,  church bus driver.

“To me he was like a brother and to all of our family, he will remain forever dear in our hearts,” cousin Martin Luther King III said Saturday in a written statement.

Vernon King was born in Atlanta, spent some of his childhood in Louisville, and graduated with a degree in religion from Atlanta’s Morehouse College 1983.

Before coming to Greensboro, he led churches in Fairmont and in Augusta, Ga. He also served as a chaplain for the Georgia prison system and hosted a Christian radio talk-show in the early 1990s.

He is survived by his wife, Robin Scott King, and daughters, Victoria Chelsea and Venus Chantel of the home. Funeral arrangements are pending.