King widow's final days reflect pattern of privacy from family

By The Associated Press

Posted 10:15AM on Wednesday 1st February 2006 ( 19 years ago )

Less than three weeks ago, a stately Coretta Scott King surprised an audience of hundreds at a fundraiser for the center she founded in her husband's memory.The thunderous applause from the crowd broke a long silence about her condition since suffering a series of strokes last year with the most serious one, coupled with a heart attack, coming in August. While she still was unable to walk or speak, the rare public appearance _ her first in a year _ was a sign that the civil rights matriarch was on the mend.The details of her progress in the months that followed were few. For most of last year, the health of Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow declined slowly _ a fact largely kept secret from even those close to her, as her four children fiercely guarded her condition. When she died early Tuesday at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico, it came as a surprise to even those who knew of her recent diagnosis with ovarian cancer.The Kings' children have not appeared publicly since their mother's death, only releasing a couple brief statements through a public relations firm.King's body arrived in Atlanta early Wednesday, and funeral arrangements were still being worked out. 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."About 200 people turned out at the Atlanta University Center Wednesday night to honor King in a candlelight vigil on the campus of her husband's alma mater.They stood with lit candles in a half circle beside a towering statue of the civil rights leader at Morehouse College's Martin Luther King International Chapel.Mrs. King's niece, Jennifer Beal, a 20-year-old junior at neighboring Spelman College, thanked everyone for attending."My Aunt Coretta always thought it was light in dark places. She was the type of person who I've always looked up to, and I think everyone else did as well," Beal said.Officials at the Mexico clinic had listed the cause of death as respiratory failure, related to cancer and her latest stroke.The 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.Bishop Eddie Long, leader of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia _ where the Kings' youngest child, Bernice, is a minister _ transported Coretta Scott King's body to Atlanta in his private plane and extended an invitation to the family to hold the funeral in his 10,000-seat facility.Noting that King died on the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the King family's Montgomery, Ala., home, Long said the family has guarded its private life as a means of protection."All of their early life, they were constantly being threatened, and you had to worry about protection," Long said. "The family wanted to be together on this and not to have to have the media standing in front of the house asking questions."To see their mother incapacitated was hard for the King children, including having to juggle her public personality with her role as their mother, said Markel Hutchins, a close friend of King and her oldest son, Martin Luther King III.After appearing at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in January 2005 for the King national holiday celebration, she missed several scheduled public appearances, including a June tribute to her husband and family at the Georgia Capitol.At the time, Martin Luther King III said his mother was "doing well" and was only abiding by her doctor's orders to limit her activities. He refused to give additional details.However, two months later, only after King ended up in a Atlanta hospital for five weeks did the family disclose that she also suffered small strokes in earlier in 2005.Because the Kings' four children _ Martin III, Yolanda, Dexter and Bernice _ were guarded by others early in life, they have grown accustomed to a protective environment, said Evelyn Lowery, a close family friend whose husband, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, helped Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957."That's the way they have lived," she said. "People felt they had to keep them private. I guess the media has played such a part in presenting negative things, the family just decided to go quiet about whatever happens."Many were surprised to learn the King had left the country in search of cancer treatment, not knowing she was there until details of her death were reported by news media."She had lived a very public life and I think they didn't want any suffering or anything that she might go through to be a matter of public speculation," said former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who was a lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr.Coretta Scott King really valued protecting the legacy of her husband through her own existence, Hutchins said."In those final days, she really did not want people to see her in a weakened state," he said.How their father has been portrayed, especially after his death, may have affected the children's openness, said Georgia State University professor Clifford Kuhn."It, in part, derives from experiences the family, and Mrs. King in particular, had over the years where there was a feeling that others were misrepresenting Martin Luther King Jr.," Kuhn said. "There were some times where there was a feeling that others were distorting his message. Undoubtedly, the privacy is a response to some of that."The Lowerys were among the last outside of family to see King before her death. They spent about half an hour with her in December at her home in Atlanta after asking her children for weeks to allow them to visit her. They were also among the few who knew of her ovarian cancer diagnosis.Still, they did not realize the extent of her illness."They were very private. They gave us the impression that she was improving," Evelyn Lowery said. "I had no idea it was the last time I would ever see her."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/2/130723