SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Verna Marie Murphy Stephenson King of Santa Barbara, California, died Thursday, July 19, of a brain lymphoma at Serenity House in Santa Barbara. She was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 4, 1933, the daughter of Edward J. and Cecelia (Byrne) Murphy. She was educated in Toronto, graduating from St. Michael’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1956.
Mrs. King had lived in California, Maine and Read, Ontario. She had been employed in nursing in Toronto and Pasadena, CA. Later, she worked in property assessment for the town of Poland and the city of Auburn, Maine. She was the first woman elected to the Board of Assessors in Poland and the board’s first assessor to become a certified maine assessor (CMA). She was a charter member and former officer of Pine Tree Quilters Guild of Maine. She also helped publish the St. Charles Borromeo (Read) Family History Book in 2004.
Mrs. King was married to Joseph E. Stephenson on Feb. 2, 1963, in Pasadena. Joseph Stephenson died Jan. 14, 1996. She married Paul D. King on Dec. 28, 2008, in Londonderry, New Hampshire, and returned to California to live. Paul King died Feb. 6, 2016.
Survivors include two daughters: Ann Marie (Laurence Ewing) of Mount Prospect, Illinois, and Kathleen M. (Scott Barnes) of Hooksett, New Hampshire; one son, Joseph E. Stephenson Jr. (Pamela Burnell), of Saco, Maine; four granddaughters: Meaghan and Bridget Stephenson of Saco and Erin and Gwen Barnes of Hooksett; one brother, James Murphy, of Hamilton, Ontario; and two sisters: Doreen Pagel of Laguna Nigel, California, and Geraldine Pennie of Toronto.
Verna Stephenson King
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