For Aiken resident Gail King, who is a native of England, Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday was sad news.
“It’s sort of like losing your mother or your grandmother,” said King in a telephone interview. “It feels a little bit like it’s a member of your family. She had been the queen since I was 2 years old. She was this incredible, extraordinary figure who never put a foot wrong in her wonderfully modest way.”
Elizabeth's coronation on June 2, 1953 was the reason why King's father purchased a television.
But his family wasn't able to enjoy a clear view of the ceremony.
“All we got on the television was snow,” King said. “We could hear the very serious voices of the commentators, but we couldn’t see a thing because it was all white snow on the television.”
Elizabeth bred and raced thoroughbreds, and one of King’s brothers, Ian Balding, used to train horses for the monarch.
His son, Andrew, “now does the same,” King said.
The Aikenite talked about Elizabeth’s visits to Ian Balding’s stables and home.
“She would come out to see her horses several times a year, so she would come in and have a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, whatever it was,” King said. “She was in the kitchen with everybody else. She didn’t put on airs.”
And during those visits, King recalled: “I met her a couple of times. She was lovely. She was gracious and funny and nice, and she made you feel at ease. But (at first) I was terrified. I practiced my curtsy and all that stuff.”
While reminiscing about Elizabeth, Gail King also mentioned the monarch’s devotion to her horses and her dogs, which has been the subject of many reports by the media.
“She was such a lover of animals,” King said. “She was basically a country girl at heart.”
King was the director of the Aiken Horse Show for more than 20 years.
Her father, Gerald Balding, was a 10-goal polo player. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Museum of Polo in Lake Worth, Florida, in 2019.