page_title: David Ward King
section_title: Deaths of David Ward and Mary Wylie King
hierarchical_section_title: David Ward King / Deaths of David Ward and Mary Wylie King
caption_attribution_description: English: Mary Wylie Burbank King, in "widow's weeds", 1920.
context_page_description: David Ward King was an American farmer and inventor of the King road drag. His invention, which was the horse-drawn forerunner of the modern road grader, had a great influence on American life because his invention improved the widespread dirt roads of his day to the extent that they could accommodate the advent of the automobile, rural mail delivery and mail order catalogues.
context_section_description: David Ward King was for several years a director in the Federal Land Bank of St. Louis, Missouri. While he had been in ill health for several years, he had been able to keep up with his own affairs. He had just finished a board meeting when he suddenly died of a fatal cerebral hemorrhage on February 9, 1920 in St. Louis, at the Hotel Marquette. At the time of the death of David Ward King, "South America" was negotiating with the United States government to send him to South America on a campaign of good roads by dragging. Another man was sent in his place. Mary Wylie King died on October 12, 1945, at the home of her daughter, Miriam Danforth King Caywood, while moving furniture, in Coral Gables, Florida. They are both buried in Maitland, Missouri.
caption: Mary Wylie Burbank King, in "widow's weeds", 1920.
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