Funeral arrangements made for Coretta Scott King

<p>Coretta Scott King's funeral will be held Tuesday at the suburban Baptist church where the Kings' youngest child, Bernice, is a minister, according to the funeral director assisting the family with arrangements.</p><p>Willie A. Watkins, director of the Willie Watkins Funeral Home in Atlanta, said Thursday that the funeral will be held at noon at the 10,000-seat New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, a suburb about 15 miles east of Atlanta.</p><p>The 78-year-old widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. died Tuesday in Rosarito, Mexico, where she was seeking treatment for advanced ovarian cancer. She suffered a heart attack and stroke in August. Medical officials listed her cause of death as respiratory failure.</p><p>After she was released by the Mexican government, King's body was flown to Atlanta from California early Wednesday.</p><p>New Birth's leader, Bishop Eddie Long, had volunteered his private plane to escort King's children to bring their mother's body back to Atlanta.</p><p>The King family hadn't responded yet to an offer from Gov. Sonny Perdue for a public viewing at the Georgia Capitol _ a stark contrast from when Martin Luther King Jr. died in 1968 and then-Gov. Lester Maddox refused to close the Capitol for his funeral, while also expressing anger over state flags being flown at half-staff in King's honor.</p><p>Family spokesman Chris Garrett said Thursday that "the family is in the process of finalizing the details" for King's funeral and burial.</p><p>The family is considering having King's body buried at the Southview Cemetery in southeast Atlanta, said Winifred Hemphill, the cemetery association's president.</p><p>Martin Luther King Jr. was originally buried at Southview in the same crypt that now lies in the courtyard of the King Center near his birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he preached in the years before his death. That tomb is a single-person crypt, meaning there is not room for both Coretta Scott King's body and her husband's in it, Hemphill said.</p><p>Southview Cemetery is historically black cemetery that was started by nine former slaves in 1886 and is also where Martin Luther King Jr.'s parents and maternal grandparents are buried.</p><p>The King family has not commented on the arrangements. The King Center issued a statement Wednesday that said the family will hold a news conference in "the next few days to discuss the status of arrangements and 'possibly' preliminary autopsy results."</p>

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