Ora King was “once a schoolteacher, always a schoolteacher,” said her husband, civil rights leader Lonnie C. King Jr.
King had largely stopped speaking for the last few years of her life, but when a nurse told her one day, “You done good,” King corrected her with, “No, you done well.”
King graduated from Spelman College in 1954. Later, she earned a master’s degree from Atlanta University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Lonnie King Jr. said his wife taught in Atlanta Public Schools for 18 years, and then at Federal City College, now the University of the District of Columbia. Her proudest educational achievement was being Dean of Education and Graduate Studies at Coppin State University in Baltimore. She also developed Coppin’s long-distance learning program.
“She was compassionate, loyal and deeply committed to the education and uplift of children who had been left behind by forces in society,” said Lonnie King Jr.
Ora Sterling King, of Atlanta, died July 1 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. She was 82. Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Aug. 2, at Spelman College’s Sisters Chapel and 6 p.m. Aug. 28, at Epworth United Methodist Chapel in Baltimore, Md.
Ora King’s family could not afford to send her to college, and friends say King credited Spelman with saving her life. “She believed in the power of education to transform lives,” said Freeman Hrabowski, who worked with King at Coppin State. “She understood that the future of each person was inextricably tied to that person’s ability to think critically.”
To express her gratitude, King continually supported Spelman throughout her life. She endowed a scholarship at the college, and founded the Columbia, Md. chapter of the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College, which named its annual scholarship fundraiser after King. She also served as president of the National Alumnae Association.
Friends say King was an inspirational teacher. “Of course, that’s the highest level you can reach as a teacher — to inspire. That’s what she did,” said Edwina Hunter, who met King through the Columbia chapter of Spelman’s alumnae association.
In addition to her husband, Ora Sterling King is survived by brothers Willie Sterling of Atlanta, James Sterling of Detroit and Jimmie Sterling of Los Angeles, daughter Sherrie Manear of Birmingham, stepdaughters Margo Wright and Kimberly Forde of Atlanta, stepson Lonnie C. King III of Atlanta, nine grandchildren and one great-grandson.
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