Alice Gertrudis East

OBITUARY: ... San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, Texas, Monday, 8 September 1997 ... Alice Kleberg East: King Ranch founder's grandchild dies at 104 ... Alice Kleberg East, the last surviving grandchild of Capt. Richard King, founder of the famous King Ranch, will be buried today near her home in Hebbronville. ... She was 104 when she died Saturday at her ranch, the San Antonio Viejo (Old San Antonio) Ranch in Hebbronville, which is about 140 miles south of San Antonio and 50 miles southwest of Kingsville. ... East is to be buried at the ranch following a graveside service there scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ... Family members of East, who grew up on the King Ranch based in Kingsville, remembered her as a hearty, hard-working frontier woman who loved hunting and the outdoors. "She was very much a working rancher who lived for ranching, and lived for her family," Marty West, a friend of the East family, said by phone from Kingsville, where family members gathered at a funeral home Sunday. ... East was born Jan. 9, 1893. She was the daughter of Robert Justus Kleberg and Alice Gertrudis King, the youngest daughter of Capt. King and his wife, Henrietta. ... East was the last surviving grandchild of five grandchildren of Capt. King, a steamboat captain who started with a 75,000-acre tract of land during the 1800s and developed a South Texas ranch covering more than 1 million acres. ... The King Ranch began breeding Santa Gertrudis cattle, the first distinct breed perfected in the United States, in the early 1900s. The land later was found to have underground oil deposits. ... Through Turcotte-Piper Mortuary, the Kingsville funeral home handling today's service, East's family released a brief obituary outlining her involvement in ranching, which began as a young child growing up on the King Ranch. ... "Alice's love of the land, the cattle, (and) the wildlife were instilled in her at the early age, and she never deviated from that heritage, even when times were adverse," the obituary stated. "She lived through droughts, depressed cattle markets, even bandit raids, all the while maintaining her spirit and love of the land." ... East, who generally shied from publicity, was described in Dallas author Dian Malouf's book "Cattle Kings of Texas" (Beyond Words Publishing, 1991) as a woman who lived a simple lifestyle, despite her wealth. ... East was widely rumored to have given author Edna Ferber inspiration for the character "Luz" in the novel "Giant," according to Malouf's book. The novel later became a famous movie about life on a big Texas ranch. ... In the 1956 movie, Luz is the daughter of a ranching magnate played by Rock Hudson and his Maryland-born wife, played by Elizabeth Taylor. ... East was preceded in death by her husband, Tom T. East Sr.; a son, Tom East Jr.; and a daughter, Alice "Lica" Hattie East. ... She is survived by a son, Robert C. East of Hebbronville; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.