Yolanda Denise King, daughter and eldest child of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has died, said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The AJC reported that King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, California. She was 51 years old. According to Klein, the family did not know the cause of death but relatives it might have been as a result of a heart condition.

King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 51. Klein said the family did not know the cause of death but that relatives think it might have been a heart problem.

Yolanda King was a noted actor, speaker, and producer of Higher Ground Productions, which she considered a "gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation." On her company's Web site, King described her mission "as encouraging personal growth and positive social change."

King held memberships in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference - which her father co-founded in 1957 - and the NAACP. Her death comes slightly more than a year after the death of her mother, Coretta Scott King.

She appeared in numerous films and played Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King." She also appeared in "Ghosts of Mississippi." Born in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., King was just a baby when her home was bombed during the turbulent civil rights era.She was the most visible and outspoken of the Kings' four children during activities honoring this year's Martin Luther King Day in January. At Ebenezer  Baptist, her father's former Atlanta church, she performed a series of one-actor skits on King Day this year that told stories including a girl's first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student's recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Ala. She also urged the audience at Ebenezer to be a force for peace and love, and to use the King holiday each year to ask tough questions about their own beliefs on prejudice. "We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," King said.

When asked how she was handling the loss of her mother, King responded: "I connected with her spirit so strongly. I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength."

A flag at The King Center, which King's mother founded in 1968 and where she was a board member, was lowered to half-staff on Wednesday.Yolanda King is survived by her sister, the Rev. Bernice A. King; two brothers, Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King; and an extended family. Homegoing arrangements will be announced later this week according to a statement issued by the family.