Body of Coretta Scott King lands in Atlanta, funeral plans still doubtful

The body of Coretta Scott King arrived in her hometown early Wednesday and was escorted through the darkened streets to a funeral home in the southwest part of the city. Four police cars escorted the hearse to the Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home, located on a street named for the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy the former right-hand man of King's husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Michael Anderson, an attendant at the funeral home, told The Associated Press that no funeral arrangements had yet been made for the woman called the "first lady of the civil rights movement."

The 78-year-old matriarch died Tuesday at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico. Doctors at the clinic said King was battling advanced ovarian cancer when she arrived Thursday. They said the cause of death was respiratory failure.

King's body was aboard a plane that landed at Fulton County Airport-Brown Field shortly after 5 a.m.

President George Bush honored King in his State of the Union address Tuesday night as a "beloved, graceful, courageous" woman who he said carried on a "noble dream."

She is survived by her four grown children, Dexter, Martin Luther III, Yolanda and Bernice. Flags flew at half staff at government buildings in Georgia, reports the AP.

D.M.