Encyclopedia Americana - (1786-1853), 13th vice president of the United States. He was born in Sampson county, N.C., on April 7, 1786. The Democratic vice-presidential nominee elected with Franklin Pierce in 1852, King never presided over the Senate as vice president. Ill with tuberculosis, he was in Havana, Cuba, on Inauguration Day, where, by an act of Congress, he took the oath of office. Returning to his home near Cahaba, Ala., he died the next day, April 18, 1853.