Tabitha King

Tabitha Jane King (née Spruce) is an accomplished novelist, radio station owner, philanthropist and librarian. Her three children are Naomi, a Unitarian Universalist minister, and Joe Hill and Owen, both of whom are writers like their mother.

As the wife of Stephen King, she is also the person to whom both the original version and Complete and Uncut Edition of the novel is dedicated, with the epigram:

FOR TABBY THIS DARK CHEST OF WONDERS

Biography (Before The Stand)
Tabitha Jane King was the third of eight children to Raymond George Spruce and his wife Sarah Jane Spruce (née White). Her father was a World War II veteran who served in the United States Navy. After the war, Ray went to work at his family grocery store. Ray was also a Democratic politician who served on the Old Town, Maine City Council. He died on May 28, 2014.

He was preceded in death on April 14, 2007 by Sarah, who had been valedictorian of her class and a devout Catholic. It is unknown whether Sarah was the inspiration for the class-obsessed Carla Goldsmith, but if it was not her, evidence suggests it was certainly her mother, Harriet M. White. In any event, Ray seems to be a clear inspiration for Peter Goldsmith.

On June 1, 1970, Tabitha gave birth to her first child, named Naomi Rachel King. Like Fran Goldsmith, she had become pregnant as a 20-year-old college student. The father was a fellow college student Tabitha had met at the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine. It is unknown whether or not the father was initially as douchey to Tabitha as Jess Rider was to Fran, but it is possible there was some fiction drawn from reality.

Nonetheless, Tabitha married Naomi's father on January 7, 1971. The two would later have Joseph Hillström "Joe Hill" King on June 4, 1972, and Owen Phillip King on February 21, 1977.

It is unknown to strangers whether or not Tabitha has an "I-want" line which appears above her eyebrows.

Biography (After The Stand)
Prior to her marriage, Tabitha Spruce had been a published poet, but in the 1980s, she became a novelist and short story and television writer. When her husband was injured in an accident in 1999 and spent the bulk of the 2000s writing short fiction if at all, she carried on the family work of longform fiction writing.

She continues to be a philanthropist with a particular passion for public libraries. With her husband, she owns three radio stations in the Bangor, Maine broadcasting area: WZON (AM Oldies), WZLO (FM adult album alternative) and WKIT (FM rock).

She and her husband Stephen split their time between their house in Bangor, another in Lovell, and a summer home in Sarasota, Florida.