Anita King-- Part 6: Later Years

Anita King appeared in fourteen films at Paramount while she was there, including four with major star Wallace Reid.  In 1918, she left and went to work for Triangle Film Corporation and other film companies.

She made her last film in 1919 and with rapid changes in the automotive technology plus new and more spectacular racing events, she faded from the public eye.  According to family members, she did not make "talkies" because she had too low of a voice from years of cigarette smoking.

Her first marriage was to James Stuart McKnight, a National Guard officer serving in Paris, France where they got married.  Her husband worked with future President Herbert Hoover  with American food relief work.

In the early 1930s, she married Thomas Morrison McKenna, a wealthy steel maker.  Widowed in the 1940s, she became part of the Hollywood elite, joining such others as Louis B. Mayer,  and William Goetz as owners of  thoroughbred horses.  In 1951, jockey Johnny Longden rode her colt Moonrush to victory in the Santa Anita Handicap.

She died of a heart attack in 1963 at her home in Hollywood and is buried  at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California.  There are a lot of notable people buried there.

Quite a Life.  --RoadDog