Quotes from people remembering Coretta Scott King

Comments by friends and admirers of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. &to=http://english.pravda.ru/usa/2001/10/31/19719.html' target=_blank>Martin Luther King Jr., following her death on Tuesday:

"It's a bleak morning for me and for many people and yet it's a great morning because we have a chance to look at her and see what she did and who she was." _ poet Maya Angelou on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We will miss her. But she certainly picked up the baton when it was dropped by her husband's assassination and continued to move forward in the civil rights arena." _ Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel.

"She was truly the first lady of the human rights movement. The only thing worse than losing her is if we never had her." _ civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton.

"Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King awakened the conscience of a nation that began the journey toward equality, knocking down the walls of discrimination based on race, on religion, and on ethnicity. We have all benefited so much from their inspiration and their leadership." _ Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

"She wore her grief with grace; she exerted her leadership with dignity." _ the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"In our own struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Coretta and Dr. Martin Luther King were at all times a towering presence, who ... provided guidance, inspiration and, indeed, helped us to maintain the unshakable belief that we, too, would overcome." _ South African President Thabo Mbeki.

"Like all great champions she learned to function with pain and keep serving. So her legacy is secure as a freedom fighter, but her work remains unfinished." _ the Rev. Jesse Jackson.