That worked for getting the keys to work. The directories were...
user rwxr-x---
.ssh rwxrwxrwx

I changed the permissions for those directories and the authorized_keys file to 755 as directed and the login works well. Thanks!

Now, onto getting the other stuff done (deny root login and change ports)

** Edit... done. The port is changed and root login is denied. Through another post I learned how to enable sudo su so I can manage to do what I need no matter what.