Black Habits - Coretta Scott King dead at 78

Coretta Scott King, the widow of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. who for four decades waged her own battle for social justice, has died at age 78.

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young confirmed the news in an interview with NBC early Tuesday.

"I understand she was asleep last night and her daughter went in to wake her up and she was not able to, and so she quietly slipped away," said Young, who is a family friend.

"Her spirit will remain with us just as her husband's has."

King was a promising music student who had moved to Boston from her home state of Alabama when she met her future husband, at the time a doctoral student in theology preparing to become a Baptist minister.

After her famous husband was shot dead on a Memphis hotel balcony in April 1968, King became a respected voice of the civil rights union.

Just a few days after his assassination, the mother of four took her husband's place at a march in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. King later lobbied against the continuation of the Vietnam War and led a successful movement to have a national holiday named after Martin Luther King Jr.

She founded the Atlanta-based King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and lent her name to a set of awards for African-American authors of children's books.

In recent years, she has spoken out in favour of stronger gun control laws, the elimination of capital punishment, the end of apartheid in South Africa, reduced military spending and same-sex marriage rights.

King gave up making public appearances after suffering a stroke and heart attack in August 2005.

However, while in a wheelchair, she attended a fundraising dinner for the King Center on Jan. 14.

Flags at the King Center, where King had asked to be buried next to her husband, were flying at half-staff Tuesday as people began to arrive with flowers to mark the founder's death.

Note: Last Updated Tue, 31 Jan 2006 08:05:58 EST CBC News