Legendary fight promoter Don King has been struck a mighty blow.
King, 79, perhaps the most persistent and resilient boxing figure ever since he came out of an Ohio prison, abandoned a thriving ?career? in the Cleveland numbers racket and began signing up boxing greats such as Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, is understandably reeling from a great personal loss.
His ?rock,? the King Family matriarch Henrietta (or ?Henry? as he called her, affectionately) died in a South Florida hospice early Friday morning. King?s publicity director, Alan Hopper, told Lem Satterfield at AOL Fan House that King?s director of boxing operations, Dana Jamison, informed him of Mrs. King?s death.
It is believed that Mrs. King had cancer which left her bedridden in recent months.
I had spoken to a clearly shaken and emotional King, for whom I was the VP of pr for five years Thursday morning.
I knew that Henrietta, 87, was slipping fast.
When King distributed free turkeys to the needy in North Jersey just before Thanksgiving, a friend wished him a happy holiday.
King was uncharacteristically downbeat and told the man he believed this would be the last Thanksgiving he, his children and grandchildren would share with Mrs. King.
Henrietta did not go to King promoted shows, whether they were the big deals in Las Vegas featuring Mike Tyson and/or Julio Cesar Chavez or the smaller cards there or elsewhere. She was in charge of the family and there was a separation between his in the public eye boxing life and his personal life.
Around the same time that longtime rival Bob Arum relocated his office and home from Manhattan to Las Vegas, King also wanted to set up operations in the gambling and boxing mecca.
But the usually forceful promoter was overruled on the home front. In physical stature, ?Henry? was a bantamweight but, in domestic matters, she called the shots.
Henrietta wanted to move somewhere warm and sunny, sure, but her preference was South Florida, mainly because of its balmy winters and because it was closer to the Cleveland area, where the Kings own a majestic spread in Orwell.
When all was said and done, it was UD 12, a decision made by Henrietta, and King uprooted his East 69th Street Manhattan offices and staff and relocated to first Oakland Park (Fort Lauderdale) and then to his present along I-95 office complex in Deerfield Beach.
The Kinga made their home first in Delray Beach and now in an $18 million waterfront mansion in Manalapan, adjacent to Palm Beach.
Over the years, King spent so much time in Vegas but I can?t recall ?Henry? ever making the trek to Nevada, at least not to attend a boxing match.
I do recall a night in Cleveland when King was proud as a peacock as the Cleveland NAACP chapter honored his wife.
I also recall booking King on the then new Conan O?Brien late night NBC show several times and the promoter making sure to give a ?shout out? to his wife on the air. I think he did the same when he was on CNN being quizzed by his ?cousin,? Larry King.
King also gave his wife a special mention when I arranged for him to speak at Arum’s alma mater, Harvard Law School.
And, when we did a Fox TV card one time in Richmond (Oliver McCall blasted out Oleg Maskaev in one round), King was obsessed with filling up the arena even if it meant “papering the house.”
I took thousands of tickets to a nearby Army base and DK paid for school buses to haul the troops and family members to the Richmond Arena. Between the military folks and others who came from historically black colleges in the area, I think we had about 15,000 at the venue.
“What’s the big deal about this show, about Richmond? Is it just the new deal with Fox?” I asked King after the show.
“No, man,” King said, “it’s all about my wife, she comes from here.”
King beamed when the black newspaper in the city did a glowing report on the promotion.
The Fox deal later went sour but King had gotten respect in his wife’s hometown, that really mattered to him.
This is what King told Lem Satterfield of AOL Fan House, just before his Aug. 20 birthday:
“My wife is my life, you know what I mean? My wife is the greatest lady in the world. She has been with me and stuck with me through ups and downs. She’s a terrific lady. A mother, a lover, a friend. A confidant that I can talk to. She’s a woman for all seasons and all reasons.
She personifies helping me, and with her and God in the forefront, she’s just made my life worth living. She taught me to love the life that you live, and to live the life that you love. I guess we’ve been together for 50 years or so, you know, who knows? It’s been an eternity. She’s the love of my life.”
(Arum, turning 79 on Dec. 8, has been touched by tragedy this year as well, his 49 year old environmental and tribal affairs lawyer son, John Arum dying in a mountain climbing accident in Washington State in August.)
He?s still the King but now Don is without his Queen.
My condolences go out to the entire family.
