SCLC president Creecy dies; apparent heart attack

ATLANTA (AP) — The Southern Christian Leadership Conference says its president, the Rev. Howard Creecy Jr., has died seven months into his term.

Damien Conners, the civil rights organization’s national program director, said the 57-year-old Creecy died of an apparent heart attack in Atlanta early today.

Creecy was elected president of the SCLC in January after the job was turned down by Bernice King, daughter of the organization’s co-founder, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Creecy was pastor of Olivet Church in Fayetteville, south of Atlanta, and a native of Mobile, Ala.

Before his election in January, Creecy had served as interim president of the civil rights organization that was founded in 1957.