Thousands fill church for Coretta Scott King's funeral

(8 Feb 2006)
1. Wide of Coretta Scott King's coffin with congregation in background
2. Mourners applauding
3. Wide top shot of church interior
4. King's children being escorted to seats
5. Wide of mourners
6. Bernice King being escorted to stage
7. Wide of mourners
8. Former US presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter arriving in church to applause
9. Wide of US Senator Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Bush and Carter greeting mourners to applause
10. Wide of mourners greeting each other, Carter embraces man
11. Wide of mourners
12. US President George W Bush and First Lady Laura Bush taking their seats
13. Bush standing up
14. Wide of church official introducing Bush
15. Bush hugging church official
16. Wide top shot of ceremony
17. Former presidents Clinton and Bush with Hillary Clinton and First Lady Laura Bush applauding
18. SOUNDBITE: (English) George W. Bush, United States President:
"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 her daily life took shape, her beauty was a daily rebuke to the pettiness cruelty to segregation."
19. Wide of ceremony
20. SOUNDBITE: (English) George W Bush, United States President:
"And today we trust that our sister Coretta is on the other shore. At peace, at rest, at home. May God bless and God bless our country."
21. Wide of ceremony
22. George W Bush, Laura Bush and former presidents and first ladies applaud
23. Mourners applauding
STORYLINE:
Four US presidents on Tuesday joined more than 10,000 mourners in saying goodbye to Coretta Scott King, who was praised by President George W. Bush as "one of the most admired Americans of our time."
King, who carried on her husband's dream of equality for nearly 40 years after the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, died on 30 January at the age of 78 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke.
"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," Bush told King's four children and the crowd that filled New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, suburban Atlanta.
"We knew Mrs. King in all the seasons of her life," Bush said. "And there was grace and beauty in every season."
Former US President Jimmy Carter echoed the theme of peace and perseverance, saying of the Kings, "They overcame one of the greatest challenges of life, which is to be able to wage a fierce struggle for freedom and justice and to do it peacefully."
Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, poet Maya Angelou and Kings' children were also among more than three dozen scheduled to speak during the funeral.
Stevie Wonder, Michael Bolton, and Bebe and Cece Winans were slated to perform.
More than 160,000 mourners have waited in long lines to pay their respects at public viewings since King's body was returned to Georgia - on Monday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church on Tuesday morning, and during the weekend at the Georgia Capitol.
King became the first woman and the first black person to lie in honour at the Georgia Capitol.
The funeral followed a day of tributes at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Gladys Knight performed and television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, former Atlanta mayor and King lieutenant Andrew Young and others shared their memories of King.
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