‘Drive-thru’ funeral visitation to be held in Scottdale for local pastor
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Despite being stricken by cancer, the Rev. Kimberly M. King stood in the parking lot of Owensdale United Methodist Church last Sunday passing out palms to members of two congregations in Fayette and Westmoreland counties where she preached for more than a decade.
“Kim felt so strong about the Christian symbolism of palms greeting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem before he would go face his death on the cross that, despite the cancellation of services, Kim wanted the members to be able to drive through and still receive their palms. Two days later, she was gone,” said King’s husband, Jeff.
King, 57, of Owensdale, Fayette County, died of cancer Tuesday at UPMC Shadyside hospital in Pittsburgh.
Between 11:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday, members of the Owensdale church, north of Connellsville, and Jacobs Creek United Methodist Church, about 2 miles away in Westmoreland, will have the opportunity to drive through the parking lot of the Frank Kapr Funeral Home, 417 Pittsburgh St., Scottdale, to pay respects to the pastor who served them for more than 13 years.
During the coronavirus pandemic, most families have chosen to cancel public visitations because of limitations in the number of people who can congregate in one place.
The National Funeral Directors Association released guidelines saying it “strongly recommends that, until further notice, funerals be limited to no more than 10 of the decedent’s immediate family members.”
“That limit sometimes does not even cover one family,” said Alyson Zombek, a partner with Frank Kapr.
“We had to think out of the box with so many people who wanted to pay their last respects to Rev. King, so we proposed to have a drive-thru visitation,” Zombek said. “The coffin will be in the parking lot and the family members, too, where they will be spaced 6 feet apart.”
Zombek said that with the visitation limitations, the Kings decided to go with the drive-thru visitation.
“It’s the first drive-by visitation in this area that I’ve heard of,” Zombek said.
Jeff King said was “touched” by the suggestion in such a difficult time.
“When they told me, I thought that’s just a wonderful, wonderful way where people can still pay tribute to what she has done over the years. The church members would have been so sad and upset not to be able to see her again. … That’s how loved she was,” King said.
King said his wife became pastor of the two churches in July 2006 and she has served them faithfully during that time.
“If someone would call and request a visit, a visit at the hospital, or if a funeral home needed a pastor, she’d drop everything and be there in a split second when asked,” King said.
“That’s just how dedicated she was. Every year, she’d take her teenage group, who met Sunday nights, up to Erie for four days and work with the homeless, and she just loved doing it,” King said.
In 2018, King, who was still preaching even though she was dependant on an oxygen tank, had a double lung transplant, her husband said.
“Through that transplant is how she developed this cancer, which was diagnosed in April 2019. But she continued to serve the Lord,” Jeff King said.
When she died at the hospital, she was surrounded by her immediate family, King said.
“People would ask how she was feeling, and she’d tell everybody she was just fine, feeling good. She would never let on just how sick she really was,” King said.
The Kings’ grown children, Michael and Misty, both of Scottdale, and Jeffrey, of Kingview in Fayette County, will be at Saturday’s visitation, their father said.
“Kim would have been so proud of this. It’s sort of like the drive-thru of palms to commemorate Palm Sunday she had last Sunday,” King said.
Funeral home officials noted that no one will be permitted to exit their vehicles during the visitation.