Dorothy King

Dorothy Aileen (Millikin) King, 96, formerly of Lisle, Illinois, passed away Thursday, March 3, at the LaSalle County Nursing Home in Ottawa, Illinois. A native of Ottawa who attended Ottawa High School for three years before graduating from Marseilles High School in 1937, she raised a family and was actively involved in civic affairs in Lisle, Illinois, where she made her home for nearly 55 years. She then returned to LaSalle County, the county she loved, for her final year. She was a much-loved mother and aunt and a dear friend to many wonderful people in LaSalle and DuPage Counties.

Funeral Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Monday, March 7, at Ottawa Funeral Home & Crematory, with Rev. Duane Kaufman officiating. Burial will follow at St. Andrews in the Fields Episcopal Chapel Cemetery in Grand Ridge. Visitation with the family will be 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. Sunday, March 6, at the Ottawa Funeral Home, 1111 LaSalle Street in Downtown Ottawa.

Dorothy was born on the farm in Deer Park Township at 12:01 a.m., January 1, 1920; one of the first if not the first baby born at the start of the Roaring 20’s, to George W. and Delight (Keenan) Millikin. She was the first of four siblings, including her brother Samuel who was lost with 23 other serviceman defending our country in the South Pacific during World War II; her sister Delight Ruth Thomas, age 93, who with her husband Ray resides in Yuma, Arizona; and her recently departed sister at age 90, Arliss Mae (Foutch) Hogue, who resided many years with her husband, James, who survives, in the Marseilles-Seneca area and, before that was a life-long resident of Ottawa. The three-story home on 615 E. Main Street in Ottawa was the epicenter of family life.

Dorothy was married for 60+ years to the late William J. King, also a WW II Veteran (Europe), who passed away in 2008. They met in Denver after the war. They were married at Christ Episcopal Church in Ottawa in 1947. After a honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls and to William’s home of Brooklyn, New York, where they attended a Brooklyn Dodgers game while there, they returned to Denver where they eventually began their family. Their first son, William (Bill) Millikin King was born in 1956. Their second son, David "Dave" Campbell King was born 12-½ months after, in 1957. Both survive her. Both Dorothy and her husband were long-time employees of and retirees from the federal government; Dorothy with the U.S. Geological Survey and Department of Energy, and William with the Veterans Administration. Due to job transfers, the family moved from Denver to the Philadelphia area for one year and then back to Illinois in the early 1960’s where they settled in suburban Lisle. Dorothy was happy about this move as it brought her back close to her mother and sister and nieces and nephews in Ottawa. The King family spent much quality time over the years with the Millikins, Foutches, and Hogues in the Ottawa-Marseilles-Seneca area.

Dorothy’s son Bill and his wife Lynne Susan King now live in Wayne, New Jersey; and son Dave and his wife Denise Carso King live in Carol Stream, Illinois. Dorothy was fortunate enough to have her children who gave her the grand-children that she adored: Amanda Clare Thomas King, the daughter of Bill and Lynne, and a college senior at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass.; and the three children of Dave and Denise, the late Marion Michael King; Sheila Eileen King, a senior at Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, IL who will be attending the University of Minnesota in the fall; and Samuel William King, a sophomore at Glenbard North High School.

Dorothy was extremely adoring of all her nieces and nephews and their families. The King family grew up closely with the the Foutch family of Ottawa including Arliss’s children Pamela Jo, William, the late Robert, and the late Samuel. Dorothy was also proud of numerous nieces and nephews who grew up in Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, Massapequa, NY and Dumfries, Scotland.