Mary L. King (1956) is an American novelist and freelance writer. Born Mary Louise Calhoun, she grew up in Jacksonville, FL. She is the youngest of three children.
Mary has always been an avid reader. She enjoyed school, especially writing (grammar, composition, journalism) and music classes. At age ten, she spent the summer of 1966 with relatives who lived in Lenox in western Massachusetts. The historic colonial towns in the Berkshire Hills left profound impressions. Her memories include a trip to the Mohawk Trail, a visit to Tanglewood, and sightseeing in Lee, Pittsfield, Stockbridge, Springfield, Housatonic, and Great Barrington, just to list a few favorite locations.
Mary developed a love for music in her early years, becoming a church organist at age twelve and studying the violin into her adult years. Orchestra performances kept her busy for over a decade. Beyond high school, an interest in mental health drew her to the social sciences program at Jacksonville University. In 1979, she received a BS in psychology.
Mary tried several jobs while in college. One of her favorite interests was driving, which led her to become a certified driving instructor for teens and adults. During that same period, the National Safety Council offered her a position as a defensive driving classroom instructor. In 1980, following in her father’s footsteps, she attended school to become a professional long-distance bus driver. Traveling the southeast was an adventure, but it wasn’t the career she had in mind. In 1982, Mary spotted a job opportunity in the newspaper for a rehabilitation center in downtown Jacksonville. She began driving a wheelchair van, transporting patients to various locations. Shortly after being hired, the center’s assistant administrator noticed her professional driving record and asked her to create an adapted driving program for rehab center clients.
Teaching clients with disabilities how to drive was no straightforward task in the early 1980s. Mary didn’t know where to start. A friend and coworker with paraplegia offered to teach her how to drive with hand controls. She researched and collected information from renowned rehab centers across the U.S. that featured adaptive driving programs. The rehab center leased a van with a wheelchair lift and had a local dealer install hand controls. They purchased a detachable steering knob and a tri-pin. The program snowballed when the administration proposed expanding the service to the public. In 1983, the state of Florida recognized Mary (Calhoun) for developing a licensed driver education school designed exclusively for clients with disabilities—the first driving program of its kind in the state.
During this time, Mary wanted to know more about the medical conditions treated at the rehab center, so she became an after-hours volunteer to increase her knowledge of specific disabilities. She gained hands-on experience working with staff and clients in physical, occupational, speech, recreational, and respiratory therapies. Mary attended workshops and studied to learn more than just the basics of spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injuries, amputation, neurological conditions, mental disorders, and mobility technology.
Much has changed since those early years. New owners purchased the rehab center and, to cut expenses, deemed the driving program unnecessary. Necessity forced Mary to take other jobs to pay the bills.
Mary King married in 1984 and over the next decade gave birth to five children. After her husband’s sudden death in 1996, she became a stay-at-home mom. On July 4, 1997, at age forty-one, she suddenly began writing a story that had been developing in the back of her mind for decades. Thirty-one years after visiting Massachusetts, she chose the Berkshires as the setting for her first book. She filled five thick spiral notebooks, upgrading several months later to a word processor. At the turn of the century, she bought her first computer. One book soon became two and then three… now four.
Mary never lost interest in physical rehabilitation or her college education. In 2001, she became a 24/7 caregiver to two young adult friends with quadriplegia, destined for nursing homes. With their guidance, and with input from online friends willing to share their rehab experiences, she began editing the books in her character-driven novel series to reflect more specific details.
Books in The McFadden Series have undergone a few edits and two book-cover updates, but the story remains intact:
It’s chaos and compassion when Dr. Lauren McFadden and her physical therapist husband, Bryan, build a resort-style home for homeless teens and young adults. Survivors of traumatic injury, the residents must face months of rehabilitation to learn to manage their disabilities.
Today, Mary lives in northwest Florida with her youngest daughter, who is intellectually and developmentally delayed (IDD). They both enjoy gardening, cooking, and shopping. Mary King still spends hours on medical research and dedicates much of her time to writing novels for The McFadden Series.
Mary King Books 