Earlene P. King, Philadelphia public school educator, dies at 86

Earlene P. King, 86, a retired Philadelphia public school educator who began her career working in parochial schools, died of cancer Monday, Feb. 1, at her daughter’s Mount Airy home.

Her family and close friends often referred to her as “Earl the Pearl,” “Kingsley,” and “Duchess.”

“They were terms of endearment,” said Mrs. King’s daughter Jacqueline King, because her mother was the nucleus of her extended family.

“We called ourselves the ‘Royal Family,’ and the younger generation wanted to give her a title because she was the matriarch,” she said.

“They called her Duchess, because they had grandmothers, but she was like a grandmother to them,” she added.

Earlene Purnell was born in Philadelphia in July 1934 to Mae Pitts and Haywood Purnell Sr. She was the second of five children, and had three brothers and one sister.

When Mrs. King was a child, the family lived in South Philadelphia and worshiped at Tindley Temple United Methodist Church. Mrs. King was a great-niece of the Rev. Charles Albert Tindley, the famous minister and gospel-music composer who founded the church.

The family later moved to West Philadelphia, where Mrs. King graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1953.

Afterward, she took college courses so she could work as an educator in the Philadelphia public schools. Her last assignment was at Prince Hall Elementary, in the city’s Ogontz neighborhood, where she worked with children with special needs.

In 1965, Earlene Purnell married Clarence E. King, but the union later ended in divorce. They had one child but helped rear two nieces whom Mrs. King considered her daughters, too.

“If someone asked what it was like to be an only child, I could not say because [my mother] was taking care of some of my older cousins before I was even born,” her daughter said.

The retired educator began her career at the Transfiguration School in West Philadelphia. Her daughter was in first grade there when officials discovered she was performing at a third-grade level. After learning that Mrs. King had taught her daughter to read and write before the girl started school, Transfiguration officials hired her as a teacher’s assistant.

As an adult, Mrs. King joined Transfiguration of Our Lord Church in West Philadelphia before making St. Raymond of Penafort Church, in Mount Airy, her final church home.

In her spare time, Mrs. King loved reading, listening to music, playing pinochle and other card games, and spending time with her family.

She also enjoyed the outdoors. “Even into her 70s, she was able to ride bikes and play hula hoops with her grandchildren,” Jacqueline King said.

Before the pandemic, the family never missed gathering every summer for a week in Ocean City, Md.

In addition to her daughter Jacqueline, Mrs. King is survived by daughters Donna P. Ackridge and Octavia R. Cooper; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; two brothers; and a host of other relatives. Her ex-husband died earlier.

Services were held Saturday, Feb. 13.