Willie Christine King Farris was an American teacher and civil rights activist, the eldest sibling of Martin Luther King Jr. She taught at Spelman College and is the author of several books, and was a public speaker on various topics, including the King family, multicultural education, and teaching.
Christine King Farris’s obituary
Christine King Farris, the last living sibling of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died on Thursday. She was 95. Her death was announced by her niece, the Rev. Bernice King, in a statement. It did not say where she died.
Ms. Farris, Dr. King’s older sister, supported him politically and personally. She joined him in 1965 for the March for Voting Rights in Alabama and in 1966 for the March Against Fear in Mississippi. She also lent him money so he could buy his engagement ring.
She lived through multiple tragedies over the next few years: the assassination of Dr. King in 1968; the death, by drowning, of her other brother, Alfred Daniel King, known as A.D., in his swimming pool in 1969; and the assassination of her mother, Alberta King, during a church service in 1974.