Here is a quote from his IMDB bio:
"Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland. His parents were Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury), who
worked as a caregiver at a mental institute, and Donald Edwin King, a merchant seaman."
Maybe somebody read that and took it out of context. I know that when I told a lady at work (who is somewhat religious) that I liked to read Stephen King's work she said "I hate him", which I thought was a bit weird. She was simply going by his reputation from the 70s and 80s.
Even another girl whose opinion I respect said she did not read any of his stories because she did not like gory things. She is an avid reader so I think she's missing out on a lot of good stuff!
Many of his books are not gory at all - Joyland, and 11/22/63 come to mind, as well as one he wrote for children called
"The Eyes of the Dragon".
You probably know this, but he wrote "The Green Mile" and "Shawshank Redemption" - both were turned into very good movies.
Oh yeah - and what my avatar says about being "Annie Wilkes' first cousin" (shudder) - that was just a silly joke. I recently reread "Misery" and that woman was pure evil!