William Henry King was born in Fillmore, Utah, on 3 June 1863, the son ofWilliam and Josephine Henry King. After attending the Brigham Young Academy andthe University of Deseret, King was called on an LDS mission to Great Britainfrom 1880 to 1882. He received a law degree from the University of Michigan in1887. After graduation from law school, King served in a number of local andterritorial political offices, including three terms in the territoriallegislature and as Utah county attorney and Provo city attorney.

King married Annie Lyman on 17 April 1889, and they were the parents of fourchildren. In 1913, six years after his first wife's death, King married VeraSjodahl. A son from that second marriage, David S. King, was a Democraticrepresentative to Congress from 1959 to 1963 and 1965 to 1967.

In 1894 President Grover Cleveland appointed King as an associate justice ofthe Utah Supreme Court. King was one of the earliest supporters of "SagebrushDemocracy," and played a leading role in organizing the Democratic party inUtah. He was elected to Congress in 1896 and served one term. He was thenelected to fill a vacancy in 1900 and was an unsuccessful candidate forreelection in 1902. In 1905 and 1909, prior to the direct election of UnitedState senators, King was the unsuccessful choice of the Utah Democraticlegislative caucus for senator. In 1916, however, King was elected to the U.S.Senate and served four terms until his defeat in 1940. He was also an activeDemocrat on the national level, serving as a delegate to the party's nationalconventions on a number of occasions from 1908 to 1932.

During his service in the Senate, King was a strong advocate of a "hands off"policy on the part of the United States toward Latin America, and wasrecognized by the government of Haiti in 1936 for his role in terminating U.S.intervention in the affairs of that nation. King, who labeled himself a"Constitutional Democrat," was an outspoken opponent of Franklin Roosevelt'sNew Deal, specifically challenging the President's attempt to "pack" theSupreme Court in 1937, and opposing other aspects of FDR's domestic program aswell.

In 1934 he was challenged in the party convention by liberal state senatorHerbert B. Maw and attorney Hugh B. Brown. While King emerged victorious, andwent on to defeat Republican Don B. Colton in the general election, it wasclear that he would continue to be opposed by party liberals. In 1936 King wasdefeated in his bid to be elected a delegate to the national Democratic partyconvention, and was targeted for defeat for the Senate when party liberalspassed a direct primary law in the 1937 legislature. In 1940 King, who by thenhad become even more vocal in his opposition to the national Democratic party,was defeated in the Democratic party primary by liberal congressman AbeMurdock. King served briefly as president pro tem. of the Senate after hisdefeat in 1940 and before a new Congress was seated in January 1941. Afterleaving the Senate, King continued to practice law in Washington until hisretirement and return to Utah in 1947. After suffering from failing health forseveral months, King died in Salt Lake City on 27 November 1949.