Carmon Ersel King, Jr. died on Sunday, June 21, 2015 at his home with his family at his side. He was born February 2, 1937 in the Pine Flat community in Lafayette County, Mississippi to Carmon Ersel King, Sr. and Clorene Westmoreland King. He grew up in Water Valley and attended Water Valley schools the entire twelve years. He entered Ole Miss on a Sugar Bowl scholarship and graduated in 1959 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. At Ole Miss he was a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. After graduation, Ersel accepted a position in the technical department of International Paper Company. While working for International Paper, Ersel and his family lived in Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana. In 1978 he left International Paper and his position as Computer Process Control Superintendent and moved his family to Water Valley where he assumed ownership of King's Furniture shortly after his father retired from the same business. He himself retired from the business in 2002.
He much enjoyed being retired, spending time on the tennis court, cooking in the kitchen and at the outdoor grill and in the pursuit of his interest of many decades – collecting and listening to classical music, with a particular emphasis on the art song. When people walked into his furniture store they were always greeted with the music he had constantly playing. He loved to accumulate song texts and opera libretti to his vocal recordings, filling numerous volumes of loose-leaf binders. Rarely satisfied with the German, French, Italian and Spanish translations given in the booklets that accompanied the recordings, he spent many hours retranslating the song texts. He was in contact with lovers of the art song over the world, exchanging translations with people from many foreign countries. Some of his copyrighted translations can be found on the website recmusic.org.
Ersel enjoyed his association with civic organizations. He served as president of the Water Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and was a member of the Rotary Club for over 25 years, where he also served as president and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship.
He served in the United States Army and Army Reserves where he received promotions from Private to Staff Sergeant. He was stationed at Ft. Knox, Kentucky; Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey and Ft. Benning, Georgia. At the end of his active service he was awarded the Army Commendation Metal for meritorious service.
Ersel was a long time member of the First Presbyterian Church, serving as Deacon and as Ruling Elder. He taught Sunday School for many years and was always ready to fill in when the Pastor was absent.
A family graveside service will be held at 10:00 am on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Water Valley, MS. The family will receive friends from 1:30 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church in Water Valley. A memorial service will follow the visitation at 3:00 p.m. at the church, with Rev. Harold Spraberry officiating.
Surviving relatives include his wife of 57 years, Gloria W. King. He and Gloria were childhood sweethearts, considered by classmates to be a pair going all the way back to the sixth grade. He is survived by two daughters, Lea Anne Parker (Barry) of Birmingham, Alabama and Laura King Burbank (Steve) of Franklin, Tennessee. He leaves three grandsons, Nathan Burbank, Andrew Burbank and Preston Burbank.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a son, Steven Ersel King.