The Kings and the Anayas met up at El Comedor last Friday morning for coffee. However, that morning, conversation wasn't about politics, farming or the weather. It was about the now empty spot at the table, that of Bruce King.

"Bruce loved the people and the state of New Mexico," brother Don King said at El Comedor just a few hours after news of the former governor's death was released.

The three King brothers — Sam, Don and Bruce — had a ritual of having coffee at the Anaya's Moriarty restaurant nearly every morning.

King, 85, died last Friday morning at the family ranch near Stanley.

Mike Anaya, former state Democratic Party chairman, and a close friend of the Kings for 70 years, said the city Moriarty and the state of New Mexico have lost a great man.

"Don called me this morning and told me he had passed away," Anaya said. "There will be a great void, a great loss. Not only to his friends and family, but for the entire state."

Whether it was having his morning discussions with friends and family in Moriarty, or to the chambers of the Roundhouse, Bruce King was the same where ever he went, Anaya said.

"This place could be full and Bruce would shake hands with everyone here," Anaya said. "And before he left he went around the room again in case there was anyone he missed."

It was that very manner that made King one the most beloved New Mexicans of all time, according to those who knew him.

His heart had been weakened over the years, even more so after the death of his wife and political partner, Alice King, almost a year ago. They were married for 61 years.

"Bruce and Alice were such a great team," Anaya said. "You almost never saw one of them without the other. They were always there for each other and always supportive."

Attorney General and son Gary King said his family is comforted by the thought of Bruce and Alice together again.

Bruce often said voters "got two for the price of one," with he and Alice.

The Estancia Valley was always home to King. He was born and raised on a farm and ranch in Stanley. He and brothers Sam and Don built the operation into King Brothers Ranches, where most family members still live. He once said some of his earliest memories were of milking cows with Sam on the ranch before school.

"When I went into the Army, I didn't realize I'd miss it," Bruce King said in a 2007 interview with the Albuquerque Tribune. "But I did. I love the wide-open spaces, riding a horse or driving across it. I love the wildlife, the sandhill cranes we have around here now. I like seeing life start out and grow."

It was agriculture that prompted King to even get involved with politics in the first place. After three terms as governor and 10 years in the Legislature, King left some political foes but remarkably few personal enemies.

King was elected to three four-year terms in 1970, 1978 and 1990. He also served as speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives and as a Santa Fe County commissioner.

Legacies of his three, nonconsecutive terms as governor include creation of New Mexico's large and enduring "rainy-day" funds, a Cabinet-level agency spearheaded by Alice King to help children and families and a formula for equally distributing public school money across the urban-to-rural state.

King's terms also saw establishment of kindergarten statewide, a public defender program and an environmental improvement agency.

In 1994, King retired to his family's ranch after losing his final bid for the Governor's Office to Republican Gary Johnson.

Don King laughs when he thinks about life after the Round House for Bruce.

"When he first went back to the Roundhouse people would say 'He's not the governor anymore, why is he shaking everybody's hand?' But that was just Bruce."

King will lie in state at the state capital on Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A funeral will be held in the Moriarty High School gymnasium at 10 a.m. Saturday.

After Don King embraced Anaya and his daughter Michaela last Friday, he accepted a few handshakes of condolences.

Then, he sat down for a cup of coffee.

Don says he and Sam will continue to have coffee at El Comedor, and even though Bruce may be gone, he'll always have a place at the table.