Donald Edwin Pollock was born in 1914. In the late 1930s, Donald met and fell in love with Nellie Ruth “Ruthie Pill” Pillsbury. They married in 1939. When the United States entered World War II, Donald joined the Navy. In 1945, they had a son named David, followed by another son named Stephen two years later.
When Stephen was just two years old, his father said he was going out to get a pack of cigarettes. Stephen later quipped, “It must’ve been a hard pack to find,” because Donald never returned. He used the need for cigarettes as a ruse to get out of the house and he abandoned his family.
Ruthie Pill only referred to Donald a few times in front of her children. When he left, she acted as if he never existed. When Stephen was a little older, he began to ask about his father. Ruthie Pill told young Stephen, “When people ask you why he left, say he’s in the Navy and that he’s at sea because that might not be a lie.”
David and Stephen always had more questions than answers about their father, but they knew it was painful for their mother to discuss. Stephen remembered that as a teenager he said if he ever met his father, he would sock him in the mouth. When he matured a little more, Stephen said that if he ever saw his father, “I would ask, ‘why?’… Then, I would sock him in the mouth.” Stephen never saw his father again.
Ruthie Pill struggled as a single parent, but she provided well for David and Stephen. They never got all they wanted, but they always got what they needed. Ruthie Pill read to David and Stephen often. Stephen remembered fondly that they sat spellbound as their mother read stories about U.F.O.s, paranormal activity, and other tales of the strange and unknown from Fate magazine. The two brothers were fascinated by stories and read just about everything they could get their hands on.
Stephen began to recreate comic book panels that he found interesting. His drawings were good for a child his age, but he just copied the text verbatim. One day, young Stephen showed his mother a comic panel he had reproduced. She appreciated his artwork but was less than impressed with the stories he had copied. “I bet you could do better,” she said, “Write one of your own.”
Stephen had never considered this before. The possibilities were endless. Stephen said it was, “as if I had been ushered into a vast building filled with closed doors and had been given the key to open any I liked.” As an extra incentive, his aunt paid him a quarter for each original story he created. Stephen’s first story was published when he was 12 years old in a self-published magazine his 14-year-old brother created called “Dave’s Rag.”
In 2014, Stephen had a genealogist investigate his family history. He wanted to know more about his father. The genealogist showed Stephen a photo of a man and asked if he had ever heard the last name Pollock. Stephen did not recognize the man or the surname. He said, the name Stephen Pollock “just doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
The genealogist revealed a secret that had been unknown to Stephen, his brother, and, most likely, his mother. For reasons that remain a mystery, years before Donald and Ruthie Pill married, he had changed his name from Pollock to King. By changing his name, his wife and sons became Kings, and his youngest son became the King of Horror, Stephen King.