Atlanta ? Coretta Scott King’s declining health was largely kept hidden from those outside her family – reflecting, perhaps, habits of secrecy developed during the most dangerous years of the civil rights movement.

When the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. died this week at an alternative-medicine clinic in Mexico at age 78, it came as a surprise to family friends, even those who knew of her recent diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

King’s body arrived in Atlanta early Wednesday, and funeral arrangements were still being worked out. The Kings’ four children have not appeared publicly since their mother’s death, only releasing brief statements through a public relations firm.

Friends of the family offered several explanations for the secrecy, including the long need for the Kings to guard their private life for their own safety.

The family has not responded to an offer from Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue for a public viewing at the Georgia Capitol. The gesture was a measure of how far the South has come since the civil rights era.