For Coretta Scott King, a Funeral Fit for a Leader in Her Own Right

After nearly 40 years of tending the legacy of the man who towered over the civil rights movement, Coretta Scott King was elevated to the pantheon of American leaders in her own right yesterday at a funeral in Atlanta attended by presidents, pop stars and tens of thousands of ordinary people.

King died on Monday last week at 78 at a clinic in Mexico where she had sought alternative treatment for ovarian cancer. She had also suffered a stroke last August.

On a day when flags at federal government buildings around the country flew at half mast in a sign of respect, and ordinary life in Atlanta came to a halt, thousands filed into the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the eastern suburbs of the city for a three-hour service that was part funeral, part celebration. King was mourned not only by President George Bush but three past presidents - George Bush Sr, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, senators, the poet Maya Angelou, and the television host Oprah Winfrey. Dozens of members of congress attended.

The service also gave testimony to her lifelong love of music. King was studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music when she met her husband, and yesterday’s program included performances from Stevie Wonder, BeBe Winans, and Michael Bolton, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

James Brown sent several dozen roses, with a note reading: "You were a mother to man and woman, and an angel in the struggle for decency and pride."

In speech after speech, King was lauded for the quiet courage with which she carried on the legacy of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr, after his assassination in 1968. "Her dignity was a daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. By going forward with a strong and forgiving heart Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband’s legacy - she built her own," President Bush said.

Other speakers lifted King out from the shadow of her husband. "Coretta Scott King really institutionalized so much of what Martin Luther King sought to teach us," said Dorothy Haight of the National Council of Negro Women, herself a legendary figure from the early days of the civil rights movement. "We should never forget that it was she who took the lead, and really helped us to understand that we have to understand something about non-violence."

She also helped to cement her husband’s legacy, campaigning to enshrine his birthday as a national holiday. "Only three Americans in our history have been given that high honour: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr," Senator Edward Kennedy said in a eulogy that was interrupted by applause. "Coretta made it happen."

During public viewings at the state Capitol and the Ebenezer Baptist Church where her late husband preached, more than 150,000 mourners filed past King’s coffin. She was the first woman and the first African American to be honored at the Georgia Capitol. King is to be buried in a crypt near her husband’s burial place at the Martin Luther King Center, which was built in her husband’s memory.