BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 8:11 a.m. ET Jan. 31, 2006


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, former mayor Andrew Young told NBC Tuesday morning. She was 78.

Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, broke the news during a phone call he made to the NBC "Today" show.

Asked how he found out about her death, Young said, "I understand she was asleep last night and her daughter tried to wake her up."

King had been recovering at home since suffering a stroke and heart attack in August.

She was last seen in public when she made a surprise appearance at a fundraiser on what would have been her husband's 77th birthday earlier this month.

She smiled from her wheelchair as she was greeted with a standing ovation and thunderous applause from a crowd of 15-hundred at the Salute to Greatness Dinner at the King Center.

Coretta King was a supportive lieutenant to her husband during the most tumultuous days of the American civil rights movement.

The Kings were married in 1953 and had four children, Martin Luther III, Yolanda, Dexter and Bernice. After her husband’s assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, King kept his dream alive by starting the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, based in Atlanta.

Sad to hear.

R.I.P

I am shocked and saddened to hear this.

R.I.P Mrs King.

Shewill always be remembered, and may our courages sister rest in peace, the peace she richly deserves.

A woman of incredible courage......she launched the drive to make King's birthday a national holiday...not too long after he was killed.....



RIP to a woman who had to deal with a LOT of threats and despair but never stopped fighting.

Thank you, Mrs King.

May you find peace in the loving embrace of the ancestors.

MayCoretta Scott Kingnow be in her final resting place and is looking down upon us like all the other angelsin heaven.

R.I.P MLK (still)now CSK

L.Stirrer,

I may have had my differences about ( and her kids), but I respect her as a pioneer and a great woman.. If there is anything good that I will say about her is that she got the King holiday past. Truthfully, her husband didn't want a celebrationof himself( That is what Dr.King told my mom), but she did something that was incredulous and alsohow his B-Daytriiggered the real racial attitudes about our country.

I also wonder. Notl ong ago , her children was fighting over the King Center. Two of the kids want the government to run it, while the other half didn't I wonder was that getting on her nerves? I hope that it didn't cause her death? Anyways my condolences to her family.,

Rest in peace to Coretta Scott King. I was shocked when I read it on another messageboard, I was flipping through the channels before and saw her but I assumed she was in the news for something else.