Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. acknowledges a standing ovation before speaking at the 36th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Service in Atlanta in this January 19, 2004 file photo. - REUTERS
ATLANTA (AP):
THE RESPECTFUL silence at the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. was broken by a weeping woman, rocking and wailing between her sobs.
Dozens of schoolchildren who had come to the site to learn more about King walked past and watched as other adults - some with tears in their eyes - stopped by on their morning commutes to pay their respects to King, and now, to his widow.
At the memorial near downtown Atlanta that Coretta Scott King built to her husband decades ago, people from all walks of life paused Tuesday to honour the woman's legacy after learning of her death.
Some laid flowers and kneeled in prayer. Most stood silent, staring at King's tomb and the surrounding reflecting pool.
OFFERED CONDOLENCES
Upon hearing the news, Vernon Lyons stopped and bought white daisies to place at the tomb, which is in a courtyard at the King Center for Non-violent Social Change - the facility founded by King's widow soon after his assassination in 1968.
"The way she lived her life ... her strength after the death of her husband and the way she raised her kids, she was a very beautiful woman," said Lyons, who went out of his way to stop at the tomb while driving into work from his suburban home.
At the neighbouring Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached and his widow remained a member after his death, the telephone rang constantly as people offered their condolences.
"We've lost a great black woman. She was solid. She was a lady. She's an American heroine," said Priscilla Oliver Manghan, a member of the church since 1979.
"She should be buried next to her husband," Manghan said. "They worked together as a team. She should be memorialised just as he was."
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue ordered flags at all state buildings to be flown at half-staff and offered to allow the body of Mrs. King to lie in state at the Capitol.
"For decades, she proudly bore the torch of her husband's legacy," the governor said. "Now she has passed it on to a new generation to keep the dream alive."
MOMENT OF SILENCE
At the state Capitol, about a mile (1.6 kilometre) from the King Center, lawmakers observed a moment of silence and then took turns delivering emotional speeches, calling Mrs. King "the first lady of the civil rights movement."
"This is a woman who certainly, in her own right, will be placed on the same mantle as her husband in terms of her global impact," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a long-time civil rights activist.
