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Celebration Of Life Held For Octavia Vivian

By PORTIA A. SCOTT (www.atlantadailyworld.com)
Celebration of Life Service for Octavia G. Vivian was held Friday, May 13, at 11 a.m. at Providence Missionary Baptist Church at 2295 Benjamin E. Mays Drive in Atlanta.  Viewing of the body was held at Willie Watkins Funeral Home Chapel, 1003 Ralph David Abernathy in Southwest Atlanta.    She was 83.

There was no repast and donations were asked to be made to Providence Missionary Baptist Church in honor of Octavia Vivian. Vivian is the wife of civil rights icon C.T. Vivian.

Al Vivian, her son, remembered his mother for her patience, gentle spirit, quiet wisdom and loving manner. He praised her great sense of humor and recalled how she taught him to drive. “I remember watching the traffic behind me, and she said ‘don’t look behind you, but look ahead.’ Vivian recalled that he, from that day on, always looked ahead.

He also remembered how she made him laugh yet kept a low key that made you stay on the correct path. Vivian said his mother was “a peacemaker and always brought peace to the situation. She would bring people together.”

Her son also remembered the words of ambassador and former Mayor Andrew Young, who praised the deceased as a woman of the Civil Rights Movement, “who was very active in the movement and allowed the men to go out and do what they did.”   Al Vivian captured her character and wanted people to know who she was.

Other tributes were brought by Mrs. Juanita Abernathy, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery and Dr. Bernard Lafayette, who all had great things to say about Mrs. Vivian, who was loved by her family.  Mrs. Abernathy cautioned the children that their “mother loved you and was there for you all the time.”  As long-time, close friends, Mrs. Abernathy recalled how Mrs. Vivian was a good mother and wife.  Cong. John Lewis sent a letter of condolences..

Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley, pastor, said the deceased “was the best mother” and was devoted to her husband, children and grandchildren. She was praised by Rev. Durley as “a loving, strong and spiritual woman who assisted and supported her husband and loved God.”

Born Octavia Geans in Pontiac, Michigan on Feb 23, 1928 to Leslie and Alvier Geans, Mrs. Vivian was the only daughter of two brothers, who preceded her in death.  She grew up and became editor of the Pontiac’s African-American newspaper as a

high school sophomore, where she was also an active leader in church and civic youth activities.  She attended Eastern Michigan University where she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and received a degree in Social Work in 1951.  She later moved to Dayton, Ohio, where she worked for the DeSota Bass Courts Housing Project and was an active member of the Greater Allen AME Church and sang in the choir.  It was later she moved to Peoria, Illinois to become the Women’s and Girl’s Supervisor for the George Washington Carver Community Center, where she met C. T. Vivian.  They married one year later in 1952 and within months C.T. Vivian was called to the ministry.

The union flourished for 58 years and produced six children.  The Vivians moved to Atlanta when C.T. joined the executive staff of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and while he traveled throughout the South organizing marches and movements against racial discrimination and injustices, Octavia Vivian worked tirelessly to end racial segregation in DeKalb County Public Schools.   She became one of the first African-American Deputy Voter Registrars in DeKalb County, Georgia.

The deceased took the lead in collecting and organizing documents that detailed the history of SCLC and the American Civil Rights Movement, and in 1970 she authored and published Coretta, the first autobiography of Coretta Scott King.  She revised and republished a memorial edition of Coretta upon Mrs. King’s death in 2006.  Octavia Vivian assisted  Mrs. Coretta King in establishing the M.L. King JR. Center and worked with Coretta daily for several months in the center’s first location at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta.  She also worked for the Cascade United Methodist Church under Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery and in Public Relations at Morris Brown College.

Among survivors  of Octavia G. Vivian are Denise Vivian Morse (Carlton), Kira E. Vivian, Mark Evans (Utrophia), Anita Charisse Thornton (Andre), and Albert Louis Vivian (DeAna Jo), children; 14 grandchildren, a myriad of great grandchildren, nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by one son, Cordy Vivian Jr. in January 2010.

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