The last time I heard from Sonny King, who died on Saturday, August 31, at age 79, he thanked me for putting him in touch with a child he didn’t know about.
The background is pretty straightforward.
Lawrence Johnson, who wrestled as Sonny King, had pretty well kept his head down and didn’t talk about his wrestling career or make many appearances once he stopped wrestling.
Bruce Swazye, Sonny King and Pete Sanchez at the 2010 Cauliflower Alley Club reunion. Photo by Greg Oliver
When I did a long interview with him in April 2010 at the Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas, he said it was really the first time he’d gone on record with most of what we had talked about.
Therefore, the story — Sonny King talks about his career — for the first time! — got a lot of attention.
Notes came in from fans, and a few people looking to reconnect with him. Apparently, running a junkyard in south Florida was decidedly off the radar.
The note from John Tighe, though, got me to act. He was 37 years old, from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and his mother had told him that Sonny King was his father.
“I have searched many times for him online with no success and I had just come across your interview,” Tighe wrote to me, asking to be connected.
Sonny King in Los Angeles at the Olympic Auditorium. Photo by Dave Drason Burzynski
Now, this is hardly the first (or last) time that a child of a wrestler has come out of the woodwork and wanted to get in touch. My policy has always been simple and straightforward — I will pass on your information to the other person, but the ball is in their court.
There have been successful reunions that I helped facilitate, like Sputnik Monroe with a son he didn’t know, while other overtures were met with stony silence.
The information was shared with Sonny and he wrote back, appreciative:
Thank you for putting me in touch with my son, John. I am so very greatful (sic), I didn’t know of him until I received your email. We have talked on the phone, and hope to meet in person very soon.
Until learning of Sonny’s passing, I hadn’t thought much about it.
The news from the family, shared on Facebook by Patty Lennard Johnson, that Sonny had battled Alzheimer’s for a decade, also explains why I never heard much from him after March 2011. “Sonny fought hard to the very end. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends,” wrote Lennard Johnson. “Information regarding services will be posted at a later time.”
Sonny King and his son John Tighe. Facebook photo
Under the sad circumstances, there is some joy in the fact that it worked out for Sonny and the son he didn’t know about. I found John Tighe on Facebook, and he had made a post that was touching and loving, and completely the story for me, at least:
This is one of most difficult things I’ve ever written. They say you’re never really ready to say goodbye especially when Hello wasn’t that long ago. First thing my Dad taught me was to never be bitter or hold animosity for the journey it took us to find each other but to enjoy what time we have now. I really truly did enjoy every moment every visit every hug every I love you we have shared. I found a piece of myself that I was missing my entire life. In a short time I’ve gained such an immense amount of life lessons and I’m truly grateful because I would not have the drive I have today to becoming a better person. My Dad was truly the most remarkable man I’ve ever encountered and the love and respect shown towards him every where we went spoke volumes of the type of man he truly was. Today he went home to be with the Lord but forever he will always remain in my heart❤️ I love you Dad until we meet again 😇🙏🏽
As well, in 2017, I heard from another son, Lawrence Johnson, who had played football at LSU. He wanted some advice on getting his father inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame; after all, he was the first African-American to win a WWWF/WWF/WWE title, the tag belts with Chief Jay Strongbow. Lawrence was hoping to get it rolling for WrestleMania in New Orleans — Sonny’s home town — but that never happened. It still could, and should, happen.
In the end, there are two sides to the wrestlers. On the one side, there is the very public persona, the character we saw in the ring and in interviews and that’s what sticks with us as fans. If that’s what you want, go read my long interview with Sonny King.
The other side, the personal one, relates to everything away from the ring, family, friends and people that they impacted. I was happy to have played a small part in that side of Sonny King’s life.
TOP PHOTO: Left, Sonny King in his prime. Photo courtesy Chris Swisher; right, Sonny King and his son John Tighe. Facebook photo.