Coretta Scott King Dead at 78

Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., died Monday night in Baja California, Mexico.

Mrs. King, 78, suffered a stroke and a mild heart attack last August. As part of her rehabilitation, she was receiving further medical treatment at Hospital Santa Monica, a holistic health center, when she died.

Born in Marion, Alabama, on April 27, 1927, Coretta Scott graduated as valedictorian of her high school class and attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She received a B.A. in music and education and then studied concert singing at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She got a degree in voice and violin, according to her biography.

While there, she met a theology student from Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr., who was pursuing a doctorate at Boston University. They married on June 18, 1953, in her hometown of Marion.