James Adolphus King
Born a king of Old Road on March 18th 1924, James Adolphus King was a well-known personality and patriarch of the surrounding communities spanning from Challengers to New Guinea. Like so many others, he loved singing and grew up singing in church. He was a member of the Ebenezer youth choir and graduated into the senior choir. His voice was so distinct it could be heard over others. He was often asked to do solo parts in church and was always the one to bring the curtains down on almost every concert held.
He believed in making the best out of every situation and for that reason he had a quote: “everybody was somebody”. That quote made him into a butcher, a milkman, a farmer, a water man, a snow cone man, a community man and most of all he was a father to 10 children and taught them all how to sing and sing in parts.
As a business man, he personally delivered meat, milk and snow cone around the island to his customers’ doorsteps weekly. He was even that politician. Even though he never ran for office he was very active and was one of the founding members of The Peoples Action Movement.
‘Papa’ or ‘king of the hill’ as was affectionately called, was the first of 7 children and lived in Old Road all his life. He was known as one of the community fathers who positively impacted many lives across the community by encouraging all he came into contact with to do their best but more so to sing and become a part of some church group to exercise their singing talent. He was humble, quiet and loved by all.
His accomplishments can be seen across the community in others. Indeed, he was a great inspiration, very stern, no nonsense man who took his singing seriously and reach out to everyone in the community. James Adolphus King lived a full and inspiring life. He died on October 9th 2020 at the age 95.
Source: Mr. Oliver Spencer
