Widow of Martin Luther King dies - report

Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, has died, former mayor Andrew Young told NBC today. She was 78.

Young, who also was a civil rights activist and was close to the King family, broke the news during a phone call he made to the Today show.

Asked how he found out about her death, Young said: “I understand she was asleep last night and her daughter tried to wake her up.”

King turned a life shattered by the 1968 assassination of her husband into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality.