Clara Ester: Witness to a Tragic Legacy | Roanoke News

Clara Ester, one of the last living witnesses to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, has died at 78. A 20-year-old college student in Memphis that fateful April day, she rushed to King’s side after the shot rang out, offering aid as he lay dying. Inspired by her pastor and the sanitation workers’ strike, she’d been deeply involved in the civil rights movement, moved by King’s “I’ve Seen the Mountaintop” speech the night before. The trauma of that day shattered her, forcing her to flee Memphis. She rebuilt her life in Mobile, Alabama, becoming a tireless communi...