Coretta Scott King Dies At 78

Widow Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Continued His Civil Rights Legacy

(CBS/AP)  Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has died, five months after suffering a stroke and heart attack. She was 78.

"We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country," the King family said in a statement. The family said early Tuesday that she died overnight.

She stood by her husband's side during the '50s and '60s and after his assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, became a powerful civil rights advocate in her own right.

President Bush began his State of the Union speech Tuesday night with a solemn mention of the nation's loss of Coretta Scott King and earlier, in a written statement, called her "a remarkable and courageous woman, and a great civil rights leader." Mr. Bush said her "lasting contributions to freedom and equality have made America a better and more compassionate nation."

King worked to keep her husband's ideology of equality for all people at the forefront of the nation's agenda. She goaded and pushed for more than a decade to have her husband's birthday observed as a national holiday, then watched with pride in 1983 as President Reagan signed the bill into law. The first federal holiday was celebrated in 1986.

"This woman must be looked up as one of these founding mothers of the new America," longtime family friend Congressman Joe Lewis told CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts. "She helped to liberate us all."

She became a symbol of her husband's struggle for peace and brotherhood, presiding with a quiet, steady, stoic presence over seminars and conferences on global issues.

"I'm more determined than ever that my husband's dream will become a reality," King said soon after his slaying, a demonstration of the strong will that lay beneath the placid calm and dignity of her character.

She was devoted to her children and considered them her first responsibility. But she also wrote a book, "My Life With Martin Luther King Jr."

Senator Barak Obama, D-Ill., told CBS News that without people like Coretta Scott King, he would not be where he is today.

"She really was not just the wife of MLK, she was his full partner, and carried on that legacy after his death in a remarkable way," Obama said.

Pitts reports King once told her that she only intended on marrying a preacher, not the leader of the civil rights movement, but that she prayed one day she would grow into the job.

One of her crowning achievements was the creation of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, CBS News correspondent Alison Harmelin reports.

King saw to it that the center became deeply involved with the issues she said breed violence — hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism.

"The center enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society," she often said.