11/25/2025
On the evening of November 19, 2025, Marie Broyles King, God’s good and faithful servant, passed into the loving arms of her Savior, surrounded by her loving husband of 54 years and her two sons. Born August 9, 1949 in St. Albans near Charleston, West Virginia, she was the daughter of the late Newton Marteney Broyles, Sr. (a painter and sculptor) and Ethel Mostelle Broyles (a musician and painter herself).
She grew up in St. Albans, West Virginia in a family of three older brothers and two younger sisters. Though the middle child, her siblings said they thought of her more like the big sister, looking out for everyone else in the family. Her humble upbringing in a large family of limited means meant they all lived together in a cramped 3 bedroom apartment, they washed their laundry by hand in the kitchen sink, and she was lucky to a have a few dresses and a pair of shoes for school, often spending her summers barefoot playing in the mountains of West Viriginia.
As a gifted young schoolgirl, she skipped a grade in school. She later graduated from Arlington High School after the family relocated to Virginia in her junior year. She then attended and graduated magna cm laude from Radford University with a degree in Sociology, the first person in her family to go to college. On September 3, 1971, she married her soul mate and love of her life Ernest Austin King, Jr. (Ernie), whom she met her freshman year at a mixer with Virginia Polytechnical University (Virginia Tech), where Ernie was studying business administration.
After marrying, she and her husband immediately relocated to Nicholson, PA, as Ernie had been hired to begin his business career at Akzo Salt Company in Clarks Summit. Marie worked several odd jobs including a stint as Wyoming County’s Pell Grant coordinator to assist financially disadvantaged students go to college. Eventually she took a job with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MetLife) who trained her to be amongst the first generation of female computer programmers during the dawn of modern computer age. She used punch-cards instead of keyboards to enter code. About the same time, Ernie took a position with Burroughs Business Machines, selling, installing, and maintaining the first computer systems at many local area banks and businesses in northeastern PA.
After what Ernie humorously refers to as a “14-year maternity leave,” she returned to MetLife for 13 more years, in part because she was one of the only people in the world who still knew the archaic and highly specialized MetLife mainframe computer programming language. In the late 1990’s, she was a member of the “Y2K Bug” team that modernized a century’s worth of insurance policy records and decades old mainframe code in a race against the ball-drop in Times Square on January 1st, 2000. He also worked on the anti-discrimination team that was tasked with identifying old policies that had historically utilized racial profiling to charge unfairly higher rates to minorities for insurance policies.
She retired from MetlLife in 2006 and transitioned into semi-retirement. She spent 5 years as a Reading Assistant in the Tunkhannock Middle School where she was devoted to her loving students. During her professional retirement, she leveraged her newfound free time and studious tendencies to volunteer her time as a medical researcher and tireless health advocate for her mother, Ethel, and mother-in-law, Constance, in their golden years.
Throughout her career, she was also her husband’s partner in the family business (she was one of the K’s in “K&K Tire Barn”). Seeing as she ran the household and always had a “honey-do” list for Ernie, a good case could be made that she was the first K in K&K. Every Thursday night, she stayed up late after the kids were tucked into bed, running the shop’s employee timesheets as a part-time payroll professional. She was Ernie’s most trusted business partner and was influential in the shop’s successful 43-year run.
She was the model of a devote Christian woman of charity and grace, a devoted daughter, sister, aunt, mother, grandmother and Cub Scout den-mother, who helped rear a flock of future Eagle Scouts, including both her sons. But her friendly smile and gentile pleasant demure masked the fierce fighter that she was. She fought her entire life to try to make the world a better place for her family, her friends, her community, and society writ large. She was a lifelong protester, public policy wonk, women’s rights, healthcare, and political activist. She firmly believed that the most important things in life were promoting fairness, equality, justice, kindness, love, and peace. Not surprisingly, she was a staunch Democrat and loyal member of the Women’s Democratic Society. She served as First Lady of Nicholson during her husband’s term as Mayor in the 1980’s. She was later active in his successful campaigns for Wyoming County Commissioner.
In her personal life, Marie was “Pinterest” before Pinterest was a thing. For most of her “14-year maternity leave,” she lived in Nicholson, where her Halloween haunted house tours (complete with jump-scares and bubbling witch’s cauldrons) were legendary. She made special invitations by hand to her children’s ever-increasingly elaborate birthday parties, which are still fondly remembered by their attendees as cherished childhood memories to this day.
She was a gardener, landscaper, interior designer, shoe affectionato, planner, and pack rat. She was also a gifted painter, crafter, and knitter, who enjoyed giving away her projects as gifts. She loved folk and classical music and tolerated her husband’s blue grass and country music proclivities, as well as her own mother’s yodeling (which never failed to tickle Ernie pink). Though tone deaf and rhythmless herself, Marie loved nothing more than listening to her beloved nephew, sons and granddaughters make music, dance, and perform on stage and in film.
Marie was also a foodie and a gardener, who never met a fresh vegetable that she did not like. Famous for her gourmet dinner parties and family holiday gatherings, Thanksgiving in particular was “her holiday.” She was an avid reader of cookbooks and watcher of the Food Network, always bringing just the right amount of southern flair to new recipes she prepared for her family and friends. She will always be remembered for her famous walnut-covered holiday cheeseballs that she tasked her sons with delivering to family, friends, neighbors, teachers, school staff, and co-workers.
Marie and Ernie were lifelong members of the Nicholson Church Couples Group (“the Group”) that met monthly for 50 years from circa 1970 through 2020, and through which the Kings’ made cherished life-long friends. She was also a 50 plus year member of the Nicholson Women’s Club for which she was recognized several years ago. She had also been active on the Nicholson Tree Committee. Later in life, she joined the Scranton Canoe Club where she frequently lunched on the porch and launched her kayak to paddle Lake Winola. As a member of her book club, she was always ready to share her latest “read.” She was also a member of the neighborhood Bunko group, where she loved chatting and bragging about her grandchildren with the other She loved to travel, always forcing Ernie to take time off from the shop to drive the family to Virginia and Tennessee to visit family. Occasionally, she managed to convince Ernie to board a train or plane. They traveled coast to coast, the Caribbean, and even Europe.
Of all her activities however, Marie’s most cherished involvement was the United Methodist Church, first in Nicholson and later in Tunkhannock. She taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School for over 40 years, served as an advisor to the Board of Trustees, and was a nonstop organizer of Fellowship Dinners. She was also instrumental in the purchase of The Gathering Place, the church’s outdoor facility near the ballfields off Sunnyside Road. She was a member of the New Life Mission team to evaluate the strategic goals of her church, travelling to Goshen, Ohio to discuss the “Two Church” concept and its implementation. She was also the driving force behind the creation of the Mexican food booth (the TUMC “Taco Stand”) at the Wyoming County Fair and directed its operation for 13 years.
Marie was preceded in death by her father Newton Boyles, Sr., her mother Ethel Cleo Broyles Galyon, and her five siblings: Newton Broyles, Jr. (Tootie), Richard Broyles (Dickie), Howard Broyles, Babara R. Pierson, Jo Ellen Broyles, and her beloved niece, Audrianna. Marie is survived by her husband of 54 years, Ernie, her son Marshall Elliot King and his wife Susan Jeannine King of Howell, New Jersey and their two daughters, Savannah Leigh Brigid King and Madeleine Elise King, son Adam Ward King of Fleetville, nephew Ronald McClary, Jr. of New York City, her sister-in-law Jeanie Broyles, sister-in-law Jane Broyles, as well as by dozens of beloved nieces, nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews, and relatives, both by blood and in law.
She regarded her greatest role in life to be a devoted wife, loving mother and aunt to her cherished sons and nephew, and Grandmarie to her granddaughters; a goal which she magnificently achieved. She believed in family first and always made the extra effort to stay in touch with her extended family including all her sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws in Tennessee, Virginia, and beyond. She desired nothing more than to leave this world a better place than she was born into, spreading kindness to all she met, and advocating.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Tunkhannock United Methodist Church.
“Her children arise up, and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her.” - Proverbs 28:28
A memorial service for Marie will take place at Tunkhannock United Methodist Church (4 Church Street, Tunkhannock, PA) on January 10th, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. Visitation is on January 9th from 3pm–4:30 p.m., and January 10th from 10–11 a.m. at the church. Interment will be private.
Fon online condolences visit www.aplitwinfuneralhomes.com
