Christine Ledesma King

Christine was born on December 15, 1945 to Richard and Julia (Benedicto) Ledesma in New York, NY where she lived as a child until the family relocated to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1953 to join additional family where she attended private girls school and began her life-long connection to the Presbyterian Church.  At age 14, she met her future husband Kenneth K King, Jr. at a church picnic, and made her debut to Puerto Rican society at 16 as was tradition for the family who had a long history in the island's politics and culture.

She graduated high school with honors and attended Beaver College near Philadelphia, where she earned a B.A. in French Literature in 1967.  While at Beaver College, she continued her love of the arts and participated in the Glee Club and Drama productions where she formed many life-long friendships.  After graduating, she married Ken, her long-time sweetheart and they moved to Boston where they began their family welcomed their daughter Michelle in 1968 and son Ron in 1970.  While at home, she used her entrepreneurial and language skills to operate a translation business focused on the medical and legal fields.

In 1974 she began her career with GTE starting in administration and quickly rose through the ranks of program management positions.  Striving to fulfill her desire for knowledge, achievement and success she earned her MBA from Northeastern University in 1984.  As her career evolved, she managed teams of engineers across the globe, implementing telecommunication networks and systems including a national fiberoptic network, aircraft communications, and nationwide cellular networks. As she mastered new skills in emerging technologies, she passed her knowledge along, developing and teaching cutting-edge management practices as an adjunct professor at Northeastern's pioneer Executive Engineering MBA program for several years. Her expertise and talents were sought after, and at the height of her career, she was recruited as a senior executive for companies in Toronto and Orlando.

While she traveled for her career, she was ever-mindful of her roles as wife, mother, and grandmother, often calling from cities around the globe, her current knitting project by her side as a gift for a family member upon her return.  She and Ken had many wonderful trips together, including one another and extending business trips with vacations as often as possible. Her love for travel and culture, good food and wine shared with friends was well known. Chris was a phenomenal cook, and she and Ken loved to entertain friends and family at every opportunity.
Those who knew her well can share stories of her personality, dedication to excellence and dogged determination, strength and wisdom. She used these traits to care for Ken as his health failed and she became his primary caregiver, ensuring he had the best treatments available in his fight with Diabetes.  These traits served her well, especially through her health battles with breast cancer, heart disease, and Parkinson's Disease.

Life-long, unwavering faith and trust in the Lord was the true source of both Christine and Ken's strength, and carried them through their journey together.  Hardly a day went by that she wasn't studying the bible, participating in church life and leadership, seeking ways to bring fellowship to others, or reflecting internally for her own spiritual nourishment. Christine was a faithful servant in the church, and dedicated her whole self and all of her unique gifts to each role and position she played with joy and humility and thoughtfulness. Over her many years in church life she as been involved with youth ministry, missions, education, stewardship, search committees, women's groups, prayer circles, holiday programs, choirs, and much more, and it was her great honor to serve as an ordained elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Bradenton.

Christine is survived by her daughter Michelle Ledesma Baer and her husband Brian Baer, her son Ronald King and his wife Kathy Saville. She will be remembered and missed by her grandchildren Julia, Zachary, Garrett, Isabella, and Lauren.

We appreciate your generosity; if you like, donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Parkinson Place, or to First Presbyterian Church of Bradenton - Missions.