Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Today in History Coretta Scott King was born



On this date in history, April 27, 2010, Coretta Scott King was born in Marion, Alabama. She died in 2006.
Less than a year after her husband Martin Luther King was assassinated we were in the High Museum admiring the Rodin statue that Paris presented to Atlanta, as a gift as a memorial to the many Atlanta Art appreciators that were killed in a plane wreck just outside of Paris in 1962.

I sensed a movement in my peripheral vision and turned my vision to my side and there was Mrs. King standing right beside me studying the same sculpture.

I was thinking what could I say witty and intelligent to show her I was a man of the world. Hmmmm? Nothing came to mind. So, we continue to stand side by side studying the statue, not saying a word.

Should I show her my raw humor by saying something crude and down to earth? No, my inner self said. “Keep your mouth shut!”

Frankly, I was in awed of how graceful and quiet she was. I was speechless, and it is probably a good thing.

Maybe she had something witty to say too and her inner self was commanding her to keep her mouth also. I doubt it.

Years after that encounter her niece (her brother’s daughter)was a carrier at the same post office that I was a clerk at. She was a hard sincere worker that always had a sense of humor about her. And I know she appreciated my blunt humor.

The statue is now outside, overlooking Peachtree Street.