COLUMBIA, S.C. - Statehouse flags will be lowered to half staff to honor Coretta Scott King on the day of her funeral after the Legislature quickly passed a resolution Wednesday.

The 78-year-old widow of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. died of respiratory failure Tuesday in Mexico at an alternative medicine clinic, where doctors say had come as she battled advanced ovarian cancer. Her funeral has not been scheduled.

Coretta Scott King "was part of the vanguard of the civil rights movement which brought equality and peacefully reformed this country," Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell said.

Gov. Mark Sanford, stung by criticism in October when flags weren't lowered to honor civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, helped push the King legislation through, his spokesman said. Sanford also is behind legislation that grants governors more power to lower flags to recognize national figures when they die.

McConnell says Sanford doesn't have that power now and that made it important to quickly pass legislation honoring Coretta Scott King.

Sanford is "pleased the House and Senate have not only moved forward on this request" and that the House also is moving forward with the granting governors discretion to lower flags to half staff, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said.

Sanford will order Statehouse flags lowered to honor Parks after the Legislature passes that bill, Sawyer said.