The King family released a statement today announcing the death of Coretta Scott King’s eldest sister Edythe Scott Bagley. In the statement, Martin Luther King, III described his aunt as a “vibrant, brilliant woman,” who was “always a source of strength and wisdom for our mother during the difficult challenges of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Bagley was born in Marion, Alabama, and was the oldest child of Bernice and Obie Scott. After graduating valedictorian of her high school class, Bagley became the first full-time black student to attend Antioch College in Ohio. She later transferred to Ohio State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree. Bagley went on to earn master’s degrees from Columbia University and Boston University, and held a number of teaching positions at some of the nation’s finest black institutions, including Elizabeth City State Teachers College, Albany State College, and Norfolk State College.

After her brother-in-law Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in 1968, Mrs. Bagley helped Mrs. King establish the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She remained an active member of the center’s advisory board until her death. As an active member of the Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, the American Association of University Women, and the NAACP, Mrs. Bagley was committed to eliminating poverty, racism, and war.

Just prior to her death, Mrs. Bagley had finished a biography of her sister Coretta, which is scheduled to be published next year by the University of Alabama Press.

Arthur M. Bagley, her husband of more than 56 years, died in February. She is survived about a host of family, friends, and admirers.