"First Lady of Civil Rights" Coretta Scott King Honored and Laid to Rest

More than 10,000 people -- including President Bush and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush -- attended the funeral of Coretta Scott King in New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia.  In his remarks at the funeral President Bush said that "This kind and gentle woman became one of the most admired Americans of our time. She is rightly mourned, and she is deeply missed."  Others who spoke during the six-hour service echoed these sentiments and praised King for her loving and graceful spirit and her work to promote racial equality, peace, and justice.

After the funeral, her coffin was brought to The King Center, which she founded in 1968 as a living memorial dedicated to the advancement of the legacy of her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   His body lies in a marble crypt at the center, and her body will be kept there in a temporary mausoleum until a permanent one is built next to his.