A King and Queen
- Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King, wife of the late Martin Luther King, Jr., would have turned 94 years old today.
- Coretta’s health declined in 2005 after suffering from a stroke and heart attack, then she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer months later.
- A leading expert explains to SurvivorNet why ovarian cancer is tough to diagnose, and what symptoms to look out for.
The wifethen widow of the late hero Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a tough end of her life after a battle with ovarian cancer, diagnosed just months after suffering from a stroke and heart attack. She died in 2006 at age 78 while seeking holistic treatment for cancer in Rosarito, Mexico. She died peacefully in her sleep.
Read MoreMom was larger than life for me. She always stood with dignity and elegance. And she had a fierce love in her heart, not… Posted by Martin Luther King III on Tuesday, April 27, 2021
A ‘Co-Partner’ in the Movement
The Alabama-born singer was known as “the first lady of the civil rights movement,” workingand marchingalongside her husband. She had witnessed racist terrorism while growing up when her family home got burned down, along with her father’s businesses, which helped fuel her own interest in change.
After King’s horrific 1968 assassination in Memphis, Coretta continued to dedicate her life to his cause with their four children, and was “more determined than ever that my husband’s dream will become a reality,” she had said. She started the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and was also the force behind finally getting MLK’s birthday declared a national holiday.
Journalist and friend of Coretta’s Barbara Reynolds, who wrote the memoir My Life, My Love, My Legacy after Coretta’s death, described the heroine as “courageous” and “gracious.”
“She was a young woman who married a preacher, and they were supposed to just have a nice, calm life, but Rosa Parks stood up, and Dr. King stood up, and she became a part of the movement,” Reynolds said in an interview with USA Today. “I have to stress that she was never an appendage. She is referred to as the co-partner in this movement from the start to the finish. If she hadn't stood up, Dr. King would not have been who he was.”
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"The media never understood Martin," Coretta once said, according to The Atlantic. "So they will never understand Coretta.”
"I am made to sound like an attachment to a vacuum cleaner," a friend recalled Coretta saying. "The wife of Martin, then the widow of Martin, all of which I was proud to be. But I was never just a wife, nor a widow. I was always more than a label."
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Their Union
The couple met at Boston University in 1953 and married on June 18 that same year. Martin Luther King, Sr. led the ceremony that was held near Coretta’s family home in Marion, Alabama. The Kings settled nearby in Montgomery and had four children together, two girls and two boys: Martin III, 63, Dexter, 60, Bernice, 58, and the late Yolanda who died at 51 in 2007.
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"I wouldn't say exactly love at first sight," Coretta said in a 1961 interview. "But we liked each other a great deal and we seemed to have a great deal in common."
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An Ovarian Cancer Battle
Coretta’s health started declining in 2005, and her stroke and heart attack had paralyzed parts of her body. When she was showing improvement, they found stage 3 ovarian cancer. She took the diagnosis with grace and courage, but then died of respiratory failure on her son Dexter’s birthday.
Her cancer diagnosis came as a tremendous shock to her family. “Obviously, she had a stroke and she was recovering,” her daughter Yolanda said in an interview with the Washington Post. “She was walking with a cane, more erectly. But she was continuing to have clotting, which led to tests. She shed a few tears and she said, ‘Okay, we’re going to face this.'” But she chose homeopathic treatments, adamantly refusing that it would be life-ending for her.
Coretta was a vegan at the time and heavy into alternative medicine. She arrived at the Mexico hospital just four days before her death.
“She started transitioning . . . to eternity, Friday night,” daughter Bernice said. “She was basically resting, coming in and out of her rest, opening her eyes.” The family said she had not started any treatments when she died.
Learning About Ovarian Cancer
One of the most difficult aspects of ovarian cancer is diagnosing it in the first place. That's because the symptoms can often be vague, and may not correlate directly to cancer.
Dr. Karen Zempolich, gynecologic oncologist at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, explains the challenges of diagnosing ovarian cancer.
"I think what's really challenging about ovarian cancer is that, while it's sometimes referred to as silent, I would say it's more subtle than silent," she says. "Most women have some symptoms. It's just that they overlap with so many other things."
Common Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer
Most warning signs of ovarian cancer relate to pain or discomfort in the abdominal area. These can include:
- Feeling full more quickly
- Bloating
- Abdominal discomfort
- Nausea or upset stomach
- Changes in bowel movements
- Swelling in the pelvic area
"Most of the symptoms are focused on the abdomen," says Dr. Zempolich. "There's some sort of upset stomach feeling or getting full earlier, rather than eating a full meal without the sensation of having a full stomach."
Ovarian Cancer Warning Signs Can be Subtle
Accepting an Ovarian Cancer Diagnosis
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
