Drag artist Kasey King has passed away at the age of 68. A native of Landis, North Carolina, she grew up in China Grove before moving to Charlotte, where she made her home in the Dilworth neighborhood.
The petite performer who made a name for herself in the Charlotte drag and female impersonation scene arrived in the Queen City in the mid-1970s. During the late ’70s she dipped her toe in the waters of the gay cultural phenomena, taking to the stage as Kathy Kunt. By the mid 1980s she emerged as Kasey King, becoming a regular performer at such clubs as Oleens and Scorpio, while also making occasional guest appearances throughout the southeast in LGBTQ clubs of the day.
Fans and friends will remember King for her performances of songs by Tina Turner, Donna Summer and music from the soundtrack of the film “The Color Purple.” Not surprisingly, there is some mystery surrounding King’s past and her exact age. Some friends insist she was 69 or 70, while others, and public records indicate she was 68.
King’s history in Charlotte dated back to 1976, when she made the decision to move here from the small town of China Grove. It was around that time she became reacquainted with a childhood friend she had attended school with.
According to friends and some public records, King was born sometime in July, 1956. On a personal level, she did not identify as Trans, and instead wore the tag of gender fluid, going by both her stage name of Kasey King, as well as her birth name of Lovester Randall Murdoch with some friends and family.
King’s schoolmate from her childhood years in China Grove recalled the first time she reconnected with King, a few years after school.
“I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on her,” Diana Salameh reflected. “I was in the seventh grade, and she was a grade ahead of me, in the eighth. It was the very first year of desegregation. That’s how long ago that was, and she was just so little and so animated, and when she walked down the hall, she just twisted, smiled and I mean, very obvious. She was such a girl. At that time, I wanted to hide it, so I tried to stay as away as I could from Miss Casey.
“But we noticed each other, to the point that one time we all had to go into the gymnasium, for some kind of [event], sitting on bleachers, and Miss Casey was sitting down below me. The boys had come up and started picking on her, you know how they pick on sissies in school. And she got tired of it. She turned around and said, ‘pick on that one back there.’ He was talking about me! So all through the years, every time I would see her again, I would remind her of that and we just yahooed over it.”
Another long time friend, Bruno York, recalled the first time he encountered King. “It was in the dressing room at Oleens Lounge. I remember a bartender painted ‘Beware the Sting of Kasey King on the wall! Another recollection I have was one night while Kasey was hosting a show at Oleens. Someone yelled ‘Get off the stage Miss Thang!’ As it was reported in a column in Qnotes, ‘Miss Thang’ responded with a beer bottle over his head!”
York is emphatic that it’s important for today’s youth to know why King is an important figure in Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ history. “She performed for free at many benefits over the years, giving up her time, her pay and her tips for many charities, including yearly benefits to raise money for [the] local AIDS charity Carnival of Hope and benefits for pageant queens to go to their national pageant.”
Another friend King became close pals with, drag performer Brittany Gwynne, concurs with York. “She was one of the first ladies of color to grace the Scorpio stage,” Gwynne recalls. “And she succeeded like no other.”
Gwynne and King became friends when the two first met at Oleens. “It was 1980, and the first time I had ever gone to Oleens. She called me over to her table, and off I went.” The two remained friends in the years that followed, and stayed in touch up to King’s final days.
A memorial service will be held December 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Rowan Funeral Services, located at 1709 North Long Street in Salisbury, North Carolina. In addition to the funeral, a celebration of life show will take place Sunday, December 22 at Club Cabaret, 101 N. Center St. in Hickory.
