Ann King, a well-known advertising art director and graphic designer, died June 13 at her home in Topanga, after an extended battle with cancer. She was 72. A former resident of Pacific Palisades, King worked for more than 35 years in the advertising, art and design communities in Los Angeles. She spent 15 years as an art director at Foote, Cone & Belding during the 1970s when FCB was the largest ad agency on the West Coast. She won numerous ad industry awards, notably for her work on behalf of United California Bank and the U. S. Forest Service, where she helped make Smokey the Bear one of the best-known advertising icons in America. King also worked on the Carnation account while at Erwin Wasey during the 1960s and was with the ad firms Campbell & Wagman and Kresser/Craig during the 1980s and ’90s. Most recently, she ran her own graphic design studio and was a member of Topanga Canyon Gallery, which exhibited her paintings, some of which were abstractions based on her experiences battling cancer. Born in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1932, Ann was the daughter of Roberta Tremayne and Richard Stiefel, a prominent surgeon. She attended school in Battle Creek until her junior year, when she went to The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York to study art. Her art education continued in New York City at the famed Parsons School of Design. She married David Barker King of Battle Creek in 1954, and their daughter Laura was born in New York in 1958 and their son Trevor in 1962, after the family moved to Pacific Palisades. Laura and Trevor attended Palisades High School as well as Crossroads School. Divorced after 13 years, King continued her art education at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, which led to her entry into the advertising industry at a time when it employed only a handful of women at a professional level. She quickly rose to the top of her field. As an art director, King was known for her exquisite taste as well as her ability to bring concept to design. In recent years, she designed catalogs for some of the most prestigious private schools in Los Angeles, including Harvard-Westlake and John Thomas Dye. In 1990, King purchased land in Topanga Canyon and built a home there that was featured in Architectural Digest in 1995. She is survived by her son, Trevor, of Brooklyn and by her brother, Richard, of Mt. Airy, North Carolina. Her daughter, Laura, died in 1998. King was affiliated with St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades where she served on the Vestry from 2003-2005. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to St. Matthew’s, attention Ann King Memorial Fund or to the Wellness Community in Santa Monica.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
