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Grief-stricken Loved Ones Celebrate 'Sisterly Love' of 'Yoki' King
by Rev. Barbara Reynolds
NNPA Religion Columnist
ATLANTA (NNPA) - Earlier this month, Rev. Bernice King drove into her driveway to find that the tallest tree at her home had fallen. Taking a closer look, she agonized over the large hole it had left and wondered how to fill it.
Last Thursday a grieve-stricken Rev. King drew from that metaphor to share with hundreds gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church how the sudden, unexpected loss of her only sister, Yolanda Denise King, left a hole in her heart — one that no one else could fill.
“Losing Yoki, who called me her one and only, is even harder for me than losing my mother,” she said. Her mother, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, passed on Jan. 30, 2006.
Nevertheless Rev. King, joined by her brothers Martin Luther King III and Dexter, added, “God never makes mistakes” and called upon the congregation to rejoice and celebrate the 51 years of life that God had given to her sister.
Yolanda died May 15, collapsing in the arms of her brother, Dexter, at his California home, reportedly as a result of a heart condition. Dexter spoke earnestly of his personal pain of not being able to revive his sister. “My doctor told me my nervous system is in shock.”
Hundreds of family, friends and Hollywood celebrities packed Ebenezer where in the landmark church across the street on Auburn Avenue three generations of Kings had pastored. Yolanda King’s grandmother, Alberta King, also had been murdered there while playing the Lord’s Prayer at the piano.
During the five-hour ceremony May 24, the life of Yolanda Denise King unfolded as a profile of sisterly love. As a 13-week-old infant in her mother’s arms, she was routed from her crib by racists who firebombed her parents’ home in Montgomery, Ala., during the movement that launched the modern civil rights era. As a woman, she pushed the cause of sisterly love through the performing arts and motivational speaking.
As a 12-year-old adolescent, her heart was broken when the father she had grown to love, was brutally ripped from her life by an assassins bullet. But, despite her pain, her warmth and caring for others was her trademark - her personal sisterhood.
As a Southern child, she watched the White children attend Fun Town amusement park and cried when she learned she couldn’t ride on the Merry-go-round, which was just one of the punishments she faced growing up Black in America. As an artist, one of her passions was speaking out across the country on the blessing of diversity. King was eulogized in word, song and dance by the poetry of Dr. Maya Angelou, actress Cicely Tyson, vocalists Jennifer Holliday, Byron Cage, Dottie Peoples, and dancer Barbara Sullivan. It was a fitting scenario for a woman who carried on the cultural legacy of her mother, who started her career as an opera singer, as well as her father, who preached with the passion of a dramatist. In her own unique way, she planted the seeds of her family’s legacy of social justice in the hearts of millions through the stage, screen and the performing arts.
The service was sprinkled with upbeat humor, Gospel songs and verbal salutes to how Yolanda King shunned roles that would demean women and opted for parts that showed a commitment to equality and social justice.
Videos of some of her appearances in TV films, such as “Strong Medicine,” “Jag,” and “Any Day Now,” were shown. King also portrayed Rosa Parks in the NBC-TV movie “King,” Dr. Betty Shabazz in the film “Death of a Prophet” and most recently she starred in the short feature, “Odessa,” currently being considered for an Academy Award nomination. In a work she produced called “: Tracks,” she played 16 parts, including a male, female, an Asia and the highest in society, to the lowest, which was typical of her mission of embracing all people.
Throughout the ceremony, Yolanda King was eulogized as a woman, who lived and loved life to the fullest. She skydived, went on camping trips and had moved into producing plays and films as head of her own corporation, “Higher Ground Productions.”
Several speakers, however, pointed out that she was often tired and over-committed. In fact, only days before her death, she spoke of her tiredness to this writer, but she also spoke with the vigor and excitement of someone racing against time to complete her mission and to further the legacy of her mother.
Following the stroke that contributed to her mother’s death last year, Miss King worked on behalf of the American Heart Association.
Former Atlanta mayor, Ambassador Andrew Young, one of her father’s closest aides and known as “Uncle Andy” to the family put the heart issue in perspective. “Heart disease is part of our tradition. We eat the same way we did when we worked in the field all day.”
Young reminded the congregation that Yolanda’s uncle, A.D. King, apparently died of heart complications shortly after suffering the loss of his brother Martin. Also two of Yolanda’s cousins died in there twenties as a result of heart disease.
Another service is reportedly to be held in the memory of Yolanda King later this month in Los Angeles. Her body was cremated last Friday.
(Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds, an ordained minister, author and adjunct professor at the Howard University School of Divinity, is a religion columnist of the National Newspapers Publishers Association.)
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