Deacon Butch King felt blessed during cancer battle

Published: September 11, 2020

Deacon Lowell “Butch” King, who battled a rare disease and cancer for three years, died Aug. 28. He was 67.

King served in the U.S. Air Force from 1971 to 1994, serving in Europe and the U.S. as a master sergeant. He then worked 22 years for the U.S. Postal Service. In November 2012, he was ordained a deacon and served at Immaculate Conception Church in North Little Rock, but had been attending St. Patrick Church in North Little Rock since his diagnosis three years ago. In 2017, he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, which progressed to Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

His daughter Paula Draeger donated stem cells and King was cancer-free when Arkansas Catholic spoke with him for a December 2019 article.

“We do our prayer time in the mornings and evenings; we count our blessings every night before we go to bed and we just know, what was our blessing today? Did we see somebody that we haven’t seen before that God put in our path? Is it a new doctor who is going to take this on?” King told Arkansas Catholic in 2019. “But through this whole process we’ve been truly blessed, had no regrets. If I had to do it over, if that’s the path of my life that God wants me to take, then I’ll do it.”

He is survived by his wife, Debbie King; one son, Mark McNabb of Sherwood; three daughters, Michelle Majors of Monticello, Denise Wright of Layton, Utah, and Paula Draeger of Sherwood; one brother, Bryan King of Locust Grove, Ga.; two sisters, Vicki Palmer of Corning, Ohio, and Melody Campbell of Goodyear, Ariz.; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A rosary and Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor Sept. 1 at St. Patrick Church in North Little Rock.

Memorials can be made to St. Patrick Church, 211 W. 19th Street, North Little Rock, AR 72114 or the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute (specify Leukemia Research), 4301 W. Markham #623G, Little Rock, AR 72205.