Archie Royce King

Archie Royce King

Born: Sun., Jun. 20, 1948

Died: Mon., Dec. 8, 2014

Archie Royce King, 66, of Redby, passed away at the Sanford Medical Center in Fargo, North Dakota on December 8, 2014 with his family by his side.

Archie King was born at Red Lake on June 20, 1948, to August and Beatrice King. He grew up in Redby, Minnesota, in a family of six brothers and two sisters. He attended school in Red Lake, graduating from Red Lake Senior High in 1965. He earned an Associate of Arts degree from Los Angeles Technical College in 1968. After graduation, he and his wife, Sandra, moved back to Minnesota, settling in St. Paul where they raised their four children, Garen, Carter, Cheyenne and Guy. Archie was a journeyman pipefitter, a member of Pipefitters Local 455 in St. Paul. He retired as a pipefitter in 1998. In 1994, Archie and Sandra moved home to the Red Lake Reservation. There, Archie worked as the Director of the Red Lake Elderly Nutrition Program and later at the Red Lake Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance (TERO) office. He also served on the Red Lake Fishery Board, and was a member of the Redby neighborhood watch, STARR Patrol.

Archie served on the Red Lake Tribal Council, Chief's Advisory Council, for eleven years, after being designated by his father, August King, Sr., to become Hereditary Head Chief after him.

Archie was always one to whom people turned for help and advice; he was generous with both. He loved to play card games, cribbage and smear with his best friends, Bobby Head, and Terry Mitchell and his brother, Knotty. Often, their card games got so boisterous that people who didn't know them thought they were brawling. But in actuality they just liked to holler about hands dealt, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes. Once in a while they stopped to eat.

Archie loved to sing and often won singing contests at the Humanities Center during tribal parties. He loved country songs, fishing, watching movies, playing Keno, and spending time with his grown children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was a fantastic cook. He hosted many a Thanksgiving dinners followed by a long session of Texas Hold 'em, attended by people he loved. He liked watching Jeopardy and the Vikings.

Archie gave all that he was to his family and is greatly loved by them. He and Sandy were married for 47 years. He gave his life to the Lord and told everyone who would listen. He's with Him now. We here are all blessed because we knew Archie and we'll see him again.

Preceded in death by: his father, August King, Sr .; mother, Beatrice King (Ashing); brothers, Kenneth King, Sr .; August King, Jr. (Knotty); Leonard Earl King; Freddy King; sister, Georgianna King; aunts and uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

Survived by: his wife, Sandra King (Parkhurst); his children, Garen King, Carter King, Cheyenne King (Jason Wilson), Guy King (Leader Woman Stately); his grandchildren: Kelsy King, Shayla King, Archelle King-Miner, Michelle King, Blackbear King, JaDe King, Sophia Chase; great grandbabies: Joey, Mariah and Nikolai; sister, Lucille Baker (Niel); brother, Richard King; sister-in-law, Shelly King (Little); many nieces and nephews and special niece, "Baby Lee."

A wake will begin at 1:00PM on Thursday, December 11, 2014, at the Redby Community Center and will continue until the funeral services on Saturday, December 13 at 1:00PM at the Redby Community Center. Pastor Maynard LaVe will officiate. Pallbearers for Archie will be Kelsy King, Blackbear King, Garen King, Carter King, Guy King, Leonard King, Earl Lussier and Jason Wilson. His honorary pallbearers are JaDe King, Terry Mitchell, Ronald Ringo Smith, Victor Roy, Jr., Mike Roy, Alvie Downwind, Aaron Lussier, Jack Rohrbach, Michael "Sonny" Brown, Greg Parkhurst, Sr., Burt Lussier, Sr., David Quincy, Donald Graves, Dale Smith, Sr., Francis Brun, B.C. Lussier, Stephen Cloud and Bronson Roy. Interment will be in the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery immediately following his service.

Archie's care has been entrusted to Northern Peace Funeral Home of Walker. Online condolences for the family may be given at http://www.northernpeace.com