In Memoriam
LITHONIA, Ga. - Ten thousand mourners — including four U.S. presidents, numerous members of Congress and many gray-haired veterans of the civil rights movement — said goodbye to Coretta Scott King on Tuesday, with President Bush saluting her as "a woman who worked to make our nation whole."
More than three dozen speakers at the funeral took turns remembering the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who worked to realize her husband's dream of equality for nearly 40 years after his assassination. She died Jan. 30 at age 78 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke.
The president ordered flags flown at half-staff across the country.
"Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband's legacy, she built her own," Bush told the crowd. "Having loved a leader, she became a leader, and when she spoke, Americans listened closely."
Former President Clinton urged mourners to follow in her footsteps, honor her husband's sacrifice and help the couple's children fulfill their parents' legacy. Former President Bush said the "world is a kinder and gentler place because of Coretta Scott King." President Carter praised the Kings for their ability to "wage a fierce struggle for freedom and justice and to do it peacefully."
The lavish service stood in sharp contrast to the 1968 funeral for King's husband. President Lyndon B. Johnson did not attend those services, which were held in the much smaller and older Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, where King had preached.
Johnson did not attend because he was meeting with advisers and Cabinet officers at Camp David to discuss Vietnam War peace talks. There were also security concerns because of rioting that followed King's death, according to Betty Sue Flowers, director of Johnson's presidential library in Austin, Texas.
Instead, Johnson declared a national day of mourning and sent Vice President Hubert Humphrey to the ceremony in Atlanta.
Two hours after Tuesday's funeral, Coretta Scott King's coffin was placed in a tomb near her husband's at the King Center, which she built to promote his memory. Her tomb is inscribed with a passage from First Corinthians: "And now abide Faith, Hope, Love, These Three; but the greatest of these is Love."
Over the past several days, more than 160,000 mourners waited in long lines to pay their respects and file past King's open casket during viewings at churches and the Georgia Capitol, where King became the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor.
Poet Maya Angelou called Coretta Scott King "a study in serenity" and challenged the audience to carry on the King message of nonviolence.
"We owe something from this minute on, so that this gathering is not just another footnote on the pages of history," said Angelou, a former U.S. poet laureate who sang some of her comments in a traditional style of the Southern black church.
More than three dozen speakers at the funeral took turns remembering the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who worked to realize her husband's dream of equality for nearly 40 years after his assassination. She died Jan. 30 at age 78 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke.
The president ordered flags flown at half-staff across the country.
"Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband's legacy, she built her own," Bush told the crowd. "Having loved a leader, she became a leader, and when she spoke, Americans listened closely."
Former President Clinton urged mourners to follow in her footsteps, honor her husband's sacrifice and help the couple's children fulfill their parents' legacy. Former President Bush said the "world is a kinder and gentler place because of Coretta Scott King." President Carter praised the Kings for their ability to "wage a fierce struggle for freedom and justice and to do it peacefully."
The lavish service stood in sharp contrast to the 1968 funeral for King's husband. President Lyndon B. Johnson did not attend those services, which were held in the much smaller and older Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, where King had preached.
Johnson did not attend because he was meeting with advisers and Cabinet officers at Camp David to discuss Vietnam War peace talks. There were also security concerns because of rioting that followed King's death, according to Betty Sue Flowers, director of Johnson's presidential library in Austin, Texas.
Instead, Johnson declared a national day of mourning and sent Vice President Hubert Humphrey to the ceremony in Atlanta.
Two hours after Tuesday's funeral, Coretta Scott King's coffin was placed in a tomb near her husband's at the King Center, which she built to promote his memory. Her tomb is inscribed with a passage from First Corinthians: "And now abide Faith, Hope, Love, These Three; but the greatest of these is Love."
Over the past several days, more than 160,000 mourners waited in long lines to pay their respects and file past King's open casket during viewings at churches and the Georgia Capitol, where King became the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor.
Poet Maya Angelou called Coretta Scott King "a study in serenity" and challenged the audience to carry on the King message of nonviolence.
"We owe something from this minute on, so that this gathering is not just another footnote on the pages of history," said Angelou, a former U.S. poet laureate who sang some of her comments in a traditional style of the Southern black church.
posted by littledevilworks at 11:09 PM
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