Dorothy Lillian King, farm wife, homemaker, loving mother, artist and musician, died Monday, July 27, 2009, in Mid Valley Hospital, Omak, WA, at age 90, from complications of old age. Dorothy was born April 29, 1919, to James Graham and Caroline Grace Randolph in St. Louis, MO. As a result of her mother's illness, she assumed the responsibilities of household management at the young age of 12. She was a top student in school and fondly remembered dances and warm summer days in St. Louis. During World War II, she worked in a munitions factory, assembling torpedo parts. About that time, she met dashing army pilot, First Lt. James R. King. They corresponded during his deployment to Africa, Sicily and England, and then married in 1945, upon his return to the States. The couple moved to Pullman, WA, where James studied in the veterinary program and Dorothy set about home making and soon raising their first child, Jim. When Dr. King received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1951, the couple moved to Poulsbo, WA, establishing a veterinary practice and occupying an adjacent home at the Poulsbo Junction. Over the next 22 years, the couple worked alone to provide a rural veterinary practice that served the north end of Kitsap County 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Their family quickly grew with the addition of son, Gary and daughter, Mila. During those years, Dorothy enthusiastically assumed the role of home maker and loving mother. All the while, she cared for a garden, cattle and horses on their ten acre farm, as well as a succession of injured wild animals needing recuperative care. The home was filled with violin, piano and guitar music. Dorothy was a woman of many interests and skills. She enjoyed rock hounding and lapidary, crafts, knitting, square dancing and studied classical guitar. She trained and rode horses and, with her husband, was active in the Kingston, WA Grange. She had a life-long love of animals and nature. In 1973, after raising their family, the Kings sold the veterinary practice and moved to the Canyon Ranch, beside Joe Creek north of Manson, WA. James established a part-time veterinary practice in Chelan. He and Dorothy set about restoring a ranch that had been ravaged by killing frosts, the forest fires of 1970, and following floods. Together, they cleared brush, rocks and debris from bottom land, restored irrigation and planted pastures. Soon they were building a cattle operation and grazing up to 100 cows and calves on the property and with grazing permits on nearby National Forest land in the Joe and Johnson Creek drainages. Leaving her city upbringing far behind, Dorothy learned to ride her horse on roundups and to drive a stock truck on forest roads. About the same time, Dorothy eagerly stepped into the role of loving grandmother to five grandchildren. All of them have fond memories of visits to the Canyon Ranch, with adventures like baking pies, rides in the hills and even feeding milk to newborn calves in the farmhouse kitchen with grandma. During this period, Dorothy began a career as an artist, that began with toll house craft painting and quickly blossomed into oil painting on canvas. She became a talented artist, who specialized in floral and landscape paintings. She won several awards for her artwork and sold a number of paintings over the years. She was a member of Columbia River Brush Benders. In 1994, the Kings moved to Pogue Flats, west of Omak, WA. They built a home and planted alfalfa on former orchard land, where they resided together until Dorothy's health began to decline. In recent years, she had resided at Valley Care Nursing Home in Okanogan. She was visited all day, every day by her husband until her death.Dorothy King is survived by her husband, James of Omak; by her children, Jim King and wife, Pam of Omak, Gary King of Seattle and Mila (King) Hart and husband, Paul of East Wenatchee; grandchildren, Steven King of East Wenatchee, Barbara Scheer of San Francisco, Benjamin Hart of Spokane, Elizabeth Hirsch of Wenatchee and Heather Ray of Keizer, OR; great-grandchildren, Grant and Anna Hirsch, Lindsey Hart, Eli Scheer and Clara Ray; and close family friend, Mary King of Omak.The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Mid Valley Hospital Foundation in Omak. A Private Memorial Celebration of Life will be held at the home of Jim and Pam King, west of Omak, on Sunday, August 2, 2009.