Johnnie Carr, 97; a Civil Rights 'Spark Plug'

Arlam Carr said that the only place his mother's age showed was on paper.

"She was still driving her own car. How many 97-year-olds are still driving and you feel comfortable with their driving?" he said. "She has lived a very active life. If there's one thing about it, we all know we're going to leave here one day, and this was just the time the Lord wanted her to 'come on.' "

Dees said he, too, was impressed with Mrs. Carr's vigor and amazed that "she never showed the strain of age. Her voice was strong and her spirit was always cheerful."

"One of the things I respect her for is she did not have the rancor and anger that so many local African Americans of the civil rights movement had," he said. "She was very willing to build bridges. Montgomery's always been very divisive, and she showed an example of reaching across racial lines."

In recent decades, civil rights landmarks, including the site where Parks was arrested, have become points of interest for tourists.

"When we first started, we weren't thinking about history," Mrs. Carr told the Associated Press in an interview in 2003. "We were thinking about the conditions and the discrimination."

Bond called Mrs. Carr a "spark plug" and "one of the remaining links we had to the Montgomery bus boycott."

"She was remarkable to have had such a long career and to have held concern for justice in the forefront for all this time," he said. "It's a great tragedy that she's gone, and those of us who knew her are blessed to have that experience."

Mrs. Carr's husband, Arlam Carr Sr., also was active in the civil rights movement. He died in 2005.

Survivors include her son, of Montgomery, and two daughters, Annie Bell Beasley of Montgomery and Alma Lee Smith of Atlanta; nine grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; a number of great-great grandchildren; and a great-great-great grandson.