Coretta Scott King remembered at church where husband preached

By The Associated Press

Posted 9:35AM on Monday 6th February 2006 ( 19 years ago )

On the street where Martin Luther King Jr. was born, preached and buried, hundreds of mourners sang and clapped Monday in his widow's memory. Across Auburn Avenue, in King's old church, tens of thousands quietly marched past an open casket to gaze one last time at Coretta Scott King.Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King remained a member after her husband's assassination, hosted a series of tributes to King in its two sanctuaries on both sides of the street. The last came Monday, a week after her death, with a public viewing, a musical tribute and a memorial service.The tributes end Tuesday with King's funeral at the 10,000-seat New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., where the Kings' youngest child, Bernice, is a minister. She is scheduled to deliver her mother's eulogy.Coretta Scott King's body will then be placed in a crypt along Auburn Avenue near her husband's tomb at the King Center, which she built in his honor next to the historic Ebenezer church.At the three-hour musical tribute Monday, Atlanta native Gladys Knight sang a special version of her song, "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me," while smiling at the Kings' four children, drawing cheers from the estimated 1,700 people in attendance.The afternoon was filled with moving gospel and secular salutes that also included singer Stephanie Mills and remarks from the Kings' oldest child, Yolanda, and TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, a personal friend of Coretta Scott King."I hope you know how much I loved your mother," Winfrey said from the stage to the King children _ Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice King."For me, she embodied royalty. She was the queen. ... You knew she was a force," she said.Winfrey laughed as she told how she once persuaded King to get a new hairdo on her TV show. And she became emotional when she told how King, in the week before her death, sent her a handmade quilt that her husband's mother had passed down."She leaves us all a better America than the America of her childhood," Winfrey said.Religious leaders from around the country also brought their condolences and read Bible scriptures chosen by the family to the capacity crowd."We are as diminished by her passing as we were enriched by her presence," Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said.From Portland, Ore., the Rev. J.W. Matt Hennesse called for the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday to also recognize his wife. "Mrs. King walked with her husband, her children walked with her, we must walk with them," he said. "We have been complacent too long."As the service concluded, King's daughter Yolanda _ flanked by her siblings _ told the audience: "I know it is the prayers of so many of you and from all over the world that carried her safely home. We knew firsthand the enduring power of love. We stood in the sunshine of her being."Monday night at another service, about 1,500 people listened as friends of King praised her for helping her husband pursue his dream.Among them was Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador, who said: "She knew the suffering of the Old South and she knew you couldn't let hate get to you."Across the street, a more solemn tribute to King took place throughout the and into the night as thousands of mourners paid their respects to the "first lady of the civil rights movement." More than 46,000 had passed through the sanctuary by 8:30 p.m., and hundreds continued to stand in the rain in a line estimated at one mile, said National Park Service spokeswoman Saudia Muwwakil.Many walked away dabbing their eyes at the sight of King's body, resplendent in a pink suit, a large bouquet draping her gray casket _ which lay directly below the pulpit where Martin Luther King, Jr., preached from 1960 until 1968.First in line was Jackie Treen, 51, of Severn, Md., who flew to Atlanta just to see King's body."I'm an African-American woman married to a white man for 30 years," said Treen, who was 14 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered. "I have to be here. Martin and Coretta made it possible for me to have what I have."During the weekend, some 42,000 mourners had walked past King's open casket at the state Capitol, where she became the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor there. It was a striking contrast to the official snub her slain husband had been given by then-Gov. Lester Maddox, an outspoken segregationist.An impressive crowd of politicians, civil rights leaders and celebrities planned to attend the funeral, including four U.S. presidents _ both Bushs, Clinton and Carter; and 14 U.S. senators, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sens. Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.Among those scheduled to speak were President Bush and poet Maya Angelou, a personal friend of King. Performing will be musician Stevie Wonder, who also attended the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., and gospel singer Bebe Winans.Workers erected a mausoleum Monday on a temporary site near King's late husband at the King Center. Built of white Georgia marble, it was built on a grassy area about 100 feet from Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb, and will be used to house her body until a structure identical to her husband's can be built closer to his.Between the tombs is the eternal flame that was placed there years ago in Martin Luther King Jr.'s honor. On the crypt, inscribed in black, is the Bible passage First Corinthians 13:13, which reads: "And now abide Faith, Hope, Love, These Three; but the greatest of these is Love."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/2/130494