Coretta played a prominent role in the years after her husband’s assassination in 1968. Then she took on the leadership of the struggle for racial equality herself and became active in the Women’s Movement and the LGBT rights movement.

Coretta became friends with many politicians before and after Martin Luther King’s death. The known ones were John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy.

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Coretta began experiencing health problems. Hospitalized in April 2005 , she was diagnosed with a heart condition and was discharged on her 78th birthday. Later she suffered several small strokes.

In August 2005, Coretta suffered a stroke which paralyzed her right side and left her unable to speak; five months later in the hospital (January 30, 2006) she died of respiratory failure due to complications from ovarian cancer.

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