Obituary: Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights hero, dies

Jan 31, 2006, 19:31 GMT

Washington - Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain civil rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. and lifelong activist for civil rights and against war, has died at age 78, the King Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, confirmed Tuesday.

She had suffered a minor stroke in the summer of 2005, but returned later to appear at public events, most recently during the weekend before the annual January holiday commemorating her late husband.

A spokesperson at the King Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, through which the family has carried on the King legacy, did not give details of when and where she died, but said information would be released later.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that she died late Monday at a holistic alternative medical center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, 16 miles south of San Diego.

'I was told that she slept away,' her sister, Edythe Scott Bagley, was quoted as saying. 'It's comforting. She's at peace now.'

Her husband, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martin Luther King Jr., was murdered by an assassin in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968, during a year of huge upheaval over civil rights and the war in Vietnam. That same year, Bobby Kennedy, the younger brother of slain president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, was also slain.

King was a known activist long before she married Reverend Martin Luther King in 1953.

'I must admit - I wish I could say - to satisfy my masculine ego, that I led her down this path,' her husband said in 1967. 'But I must say we went down together, because she was as actively involved and concerned when we met as she is now.'

The Reverend Jesse Jackson, a leading civil rights advocate who once ran for US president, called King an 'authentic freedom fighter' in broadcast remarks Tuesday.

Following her husband's assassination, King spent much of her time establishing the King Centre as a lasting legacy to her husband's work. The center, based in Atlanta and founded the same year Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, has sponsored numerous projects in the areas of education, getting African-Americans elected to public office and protecting voting rights.

Coretta King's death follows the passing last year of another civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks, who famously sparked the modern-age civil rights movement by refusing to sit at the back of a bus in 1955.

Parks' death and Coretta King's illness echoed with their absence at this year's celebrations of Martin Luther King's birthday, a federal holiday observed on the Monday nearest his actual birthday of January 15. King, wheel chair bound since suffering a stroke last August, kept a low profile throughout the actual holiday.

King was a national force for change and reconciliation in US politics for more than 30 years after her husband's death, and attended presidential inaugurations - including the disputed installation of conservative President George W. Bush in 2001.

Bush had lost the popular vote - and received only 9 per cent of the black vote - but won the Supreme Court decision on Florida's disputed vote. Tens of thousands protested on inauguration day.

Even though she criticized Bush for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying 'war is a poor chisel for carving out a peaceful future,' she appeared with Bush in 2004 on the birthday visit to her husband's tomb. The visit was marred by protesters who could be heard shouting for the President to 'go home' as he laid a wreath.

King lobbied to get the late president Ronald Reagan to support Nelson Mandela's release from prison in South Africa, and has appeared with world leaders like Indira Ghandi, the late Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama.

King also led campaigns for non-violence, working with numerous peace and justice organizations.

Born and raised in Marion, Alabama, Coretta King met her husband while studying concert singing in Boston. They were married on June 18, 1953, and lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, which became epicentres of the civil rights movement.

They had four children who have continued working for civil rights through acting, writing, administrating the King Centre and other activities. The children disagree, however, over whether the U.S. Parks Service should take over the King Center in Atlanta, which has been struggling for funds.