Coretta Scott King, MLK Rest Together

Coretta Scott King, MLK Rest Together

AP

ATLANTA (AP) - Ten months after her death, Coretta Scott King is in her final resting place next to her husband, slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The single crypt that had housed Martin Luther King Jr.'s body at the grounds of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change has been replaced by a larger one, and Coretta Scott King's body has been moved to it from a temporary grave.

The new grave site is slated to open Monday.

Coretta Scott King, 78, died Jan. 30 of complications from a stroke and ovarian cancer.

This is technically the third grave for Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis in 1968.

He was initially buried at South-View Cemetery in Atlanta near the graves of his parents and maternal grandparents. When Coretta Scott King built the King Center, she moved her husband's body to the grounds next to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he preached.

 

Coretta Scott King, MLK rest together in new crypt

By ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/18/06

Ten months after her death, Coretta Scott King is in her final resting place.

Behind a huge green temporary fence, workers scrambled Friday to put the finishing touches on a single crypt that would house King's body alongside the body of her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Louie Favorite/AJC (ENLARGE)

On Feb. 7, Larry Faulkner (left) and Charles Arnold prepare the temporary crypt where Coretta Scott King was buried. On Friday, she and her husband were placed together in a permanent crypt at the King Center. The site will reopen to the public Monday.

The new, larger crypt replaces the former crypt that housed Martin Luther King Jr.'s body in the center of the reflecting pool on the grounds of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

The area, which has been closed to the public while work was being done, is expected to reopen to the public Monday. The move is at least six weeks ahead of schedule. In October, officials at the King Center speculated that the crypt would be ready by Dec. 31 to assure that King would be with her husband on his birthday — Jan. 15.

Calls to the King children seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Coretta Scott King, 78, died Jan. 30 of complications from a stroke she suffered last year and ovarian cancer.

The island that housed King's crypt was made to hold the remains of two people, but the crypt had to be rebuilt to make it bigger. Technically, the new crypt is the third place where Martin Luther King's body has rested. After his death in 1968, he was originally buried at South-View Cemetery in Atlanta, where his parents and maternal grandparents are also buried.

Shortly after Coretta Scott King built the King Center, she had her husband's body moved to the grounds.

It was always clear that upon her death Coretta Scott King's body would be placed next to her husband's. Her burial at the King Center had been in the works for 26 years. In the 1980 legislation to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, provisions were made for Coretta Scott King to one day rest at the site.

Between her funeral in February and pre-dawn Friday, her body rested in a temporary gray marble crypt, facing Auburn Avenue and surrounded by a bed of flowers in an area in front of her husband's tomb.