    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 6 (Monday, February 13, 2006)]
    [Pages 196-197]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at the Funeral Service for Coretta Scott King in Lithonia,
    Georgia

    February 7, 2006

        To the King Family, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: We
    gather in God's house, in God's presence, to honor God's servant,
    Coretta Scott King. Her journey was long and only briefly with a hand to
    hold. But now she leans on everlasting arms. I've come today to offer
    the sympathy of our entire Nation at the passing of a woman who worked
    to make our Nation whole.
        Americans knew her husband only as a young man. We knew Mrs. King in
    all the seasons of her life--and there was grace and beauty in every
    season. As a great movement of history took shape, her dignity was a
    daily rebuke to the pettiness and cruelty of segregation. When she wore
    a veil at 40 years old, her dignity revealed the deepest trust in God
    and His purposes. In decades of prominence, her dignity drew others to
    the unfinished work of justice. In all her years, Coretta Scott King
    showed that a person of conviction and strength could also be a
    beautiful soul. This kind and gentle woman became one of the most
    admired Americans of our time. She is rightly mourned, and she is deeply
    missed.
        Some here today knew her as a girl and saw something very special
    long before a young preacher proposed. She once said, ``Before I was a
    King, I was a Scott.'' And the Scotts were strong and righteous and
    brave in the face of wrong. Coretta eventually took on the duties of a
    pastor's wife and a calling that reached far beyond the doors of the
    Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

    [[Page 197]]

        In that calling, Dr. King's family was subjected to vicious words,
    threatening calls in the night, and a bombing at their house. Coretta
    had every right to count the cost and step back from the struggle. But
    she decided that her children needed more than a safe home--they needed
    an America that upheld their equality and wrote their rights into law.
    And because this young mother and father were not intimidated, millions
    of children they would never meet are now living in a better, more
    welcoming country.
        In the critical hours of the civil rights movement, there were
    always men and women of conscience at the heart of the drama. They knew
    that old hatreds ran deep. They knew that nonviolence might be answered
    with violence. They knew that much established authority was against
    them. Yet they also knew that sheriffs and mayors and Governors were not
    ultimately in control of events, that a greater authority was interested
    and very much in charge. The God of Moses was not neutral about their
    captivity. The God of Isaiah and the prophets was still impatient with
    injustice. And they knew that the Son of God would never leave them or
    forsake them.
        But some had to leave before their time--and Dr. King left behind a
    grieving widow and little children. Rarely has so much been asked of a
    pastor's wife, and rarely has so much been taken away. Years later, Mrs.
    King recalled, ``I would wake up in the morning, have my cry, then go in
    to them. The children saw me going forward.'' Martin Luther King, Jr.,
    had preached that unmerited suffering could have redemptive power.
        Little did he know that this great truth would be proven in the life
    of the person he loved the most. Others could cause her sorrow, but no
    one could make her bitter. By going forward with a strong and forgiving
    heart, Coretta Scott King not only secured her husband's legacy; she
    built her own. Having loved a leader, she became a leader. And when she
    spoke, America listened closely, because her voice carried the wisdom
    and goodness of a life well lived.
        In that life, Coretta Scott King knew danger; she knew injustice;
    she knew sudden and terrible grief. She also knew that her Redeemer
    lives. She trusted in the Name above every name. And today we trust that
    our sister Coretta is on the other shore--at peace, at rest, at home.
    May God bless you, and may God bless our country.

    Note: The President spoke at 1 p.m. at the New Birth Missionary Baptist
    Church.