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Coretta Scott King Dies at 78
By ERRIN HAINES
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; 8:20 AM
ATLANTA -- Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.
Markel Hutchins, a close family friend of the Kings, told The Associated Press he spoke early this morning with Bernice King, who confirmed her mother's passing.
Coretta Scott King. (John Bazemore - AP)
Timeline: The Life of Coretta Scott King
Key events in the life of Coretta Scott King:
April 27, 1927: Coretta Scott is born in Perry County, Ala.
1947: Begins attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She would earn a bachelor's in music and education and later study concert singing at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music.
June 18, 1953: Marries the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Marion, Ala.
Nov. 17, 1955: Yolanda Denise is born in Montgomery, Ala.
Jan. 30, 1956: A bomb is thrown onto the Kings' Montgomery home. Coretta King is in the house with baby Yolanda. No one is injured.
Oct. 23, 1957: Martin Luther King III is born in Montgomery.
Feb. 2, 1958: Spends a month with her husband in India studying Gandhi's techniques of nonviolence as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru.
Jan. 24, 1960: The King family moves from Montgomery to Atlanta, where Dr. King becomes co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.
Jan. 30, 1961: Dexter Scott King is born in Atlanta.
March 28, 1963: Bernice Albertine King is born in Atlanta.
Aug. 28, 1963: At the March on Washington, Dr. King delivers his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
June 26, 1968: Founds the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta.
March 27, 1979: Testifies for the first time before joint hearings of Congress in support of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Nov. 3, 1983: President Reagan signs a bill establishing the third Monday of every January as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday.
Jan. 20, 1986: First national celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
Aug. 16, 2005: Suffers a stroke.
Jan 16, 2006: Watches the King Day ceremonies on television, the 20th anniversary of the federal holiday.
Jan. 31, 2006: The family announces she died overnight.
Former Mayor Andrew Young said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Web site that Bernice King found her mother at about 1 a.m.
Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, told NBC's "Today" show: "I understand that she was asleep last night and her daughter went in to wake her up and she was not able to and so she quietly slipped away. Her spirit will remain with us just as her husband's has."
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach the family were unsuccessful. They did not immediately return phone calls, but flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.
King suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005.
She was a supportive lieutenant to her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., during the most tumultuous days of the American civil rights movement. She had married him in 1953.
After her husband's assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, she kept his dream alive while also raising their four children.
She worked to keep his ideology of equality for all people at the forefront of the nation's agenda. She goaded and pulled for more than a decade to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday, then watched with pride in 1983 as President Reagan signed the bill into law. The first federal holiday was celebrated in 1986.
King became a symbol, in her own right, of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.
"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.
She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility. But she also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.," and, in 1969, founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
<P ID="signature">______________
Tony Lyndell Williams</P>
By ERRIN HAINES
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; 8:20 AM
ATLANTA -- Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.
Markel Hutchins, a close family friend of the Kings, told The Associated Press he spoke early this morning with Bernice King, who confirmed her mother's passing.
Coretta Scott King. (John Bazemore - AP)
Timeline: The Life of Coretta Scott King
Key events in the life of Coretta Scott King:
April 27, 1927: Coretta Scott is born in Perry County, Ala.
1947: Begins attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She would earn a bachelor's in music and education and later study concert singing at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music.
June 18, 1953: Marries the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Marion, Ala.
Nov. 17, 1955: Yolanda Denise is born in Montgomery, Ala.
Jan. 30, 1956: A bomb is thrown onto the Kings' Montgomery home. Coretta King is in the house with baby Yolanda. No one is injured.
Oct. 23, 1957: Martin Luther King III is born in Montgomery.
Feb. 2, 1958: Spends a month with her husband in India studying Gandhi's techniques of nonviolence as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru.
Jan. 24, 1960: The King family moves from Montgomery to Atlanta, where Dr. King becomes co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.
Jan. 30, 1961: Dexter Scott King is born in Atlanta.
March 28, 1963: Bernice Albertine King is born in Atlanta.
Aug. 28, 1963: At the March on Washington, Dr. King delivers his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
June 26, 1968: Founds the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta.
March 27, 1979: Testifies for the first time before joint hearings of Congress in support of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
Nov. 3, 1983: President Reagan signs a bill establishing the third Monday of every January as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday.
Jan. 20, 1986: First national celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
Aug. 16, 2005: Suffers a stroke.
Jan 16, 2006: Watches the King Day ceremonies on television, the 20th anniversary of the federal holiday.
Jan. 31, 2006: The family announces she died overnight.
Former Mayor Andrew Young said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Web site that Bernice King found her mother at about 1 a.m.
Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, told NBC's "Today" show: "I understand that she was asleep last night and her daughter went in to wake her up and she was not able to and so she quietly slipped away. Her spirit will remain with us just as her husband's has."
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach the family were unsuccessful. They did not immediately return phone calls, but flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.
King suffered a serious stroke and heart attack in 2005.
She was a supportive lieutenant to her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., during the most tumultuous days of the American civil rights movement. She had married him in 1953.
After her husband's assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, she kept his dream alive while also raising their four children.
She worked to keep his ideology of equality for all people at the forefront of the nation's agenda. She goaded and pulled for more than a decade to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday, then watched with pride in 1983 as President Reagan signed the bill into law. The first federal holiday was celebrated in 1986.
King became a symbol, in her own right, of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.
"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.
She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility. But she also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.," and, in 1969, founded the multimillion-dollar Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
<P ID="signature">______________
Tony Lyndell Williams</P>