Atlanta – Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest child who pursued her father’s dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, collapsed and died in Santa Monica, Calif., late Tuesday. She was 51.
The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem.
“She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society,” the King family said in a statement.
Former Mayor Andrew Young, a lieutenant of her father’s who has remained close to the family, said King was going to her brother Dexter’s home when she collapsed in the doorway.
Her death came less than a year and a half after her mother, Coretta Scott King, died in January 2006 after battling ovarian cancer and the effects of a stroke. Her struggle prompted her daughter to work with the American Heart Association to raise awareness about strokes.
Yolanda King, who lived in California, was an actress, ran a production company and appeared in numerous films, including “Ghosts of Mississippi.” She played Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries “King.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who also worked with her father, said: “She lived with a lot of the trauma of our struggle. The movement was in her DNA.”
She founded and led Higher Ground Productions, billed as a “gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation.”
Yolanda Denise King – nicknamed Yoki by the family – was born Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., where her father was then preaching. Her brother Martin III was born in 1957; brother Dexter in 1961; and sister Bernice in 1963.
She was just 2 weeks old when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus there, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott spearheaded by her father.
She was 12 when her father was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
