If you believe in omens, this was a bad one. You know the eternal flame near the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the one that's supposed to burn forever and symbolizes "the continuing effort to realize Dr. King's ideals" for the world?

It went out. At 4:08 p.m. Saturday, the blue flame that has burned through snow, wind, even the previous day's continuous freezing rain, just died.

To a lot of people, the flame died years ago, if not on King's ideals for world peace, then at least on King Day celebrations and the relevance of the King Center -- control of which has been at the heart of an embarrassing feud between two factions of the late leader's offspring.

The final, extinguishing gust probably occurred last fall when King Center chairman -- and King's youngest son -- Dexter Scott King returned to Atlanta from his home in Malibu, Calif., tried to enter the center's administration building and discovered that his key no longer worked.

His oldest brother, Martin Luther King III, had changed the locks to keep him out. Dexter King and his sister, Yolanda King, want to sell the center to the National Park Service, which now operates parts of the center, for about $11 million. Martin King III and his sister, Bernice King, want to retain ownership.

After being locked out, Dexter reconfigured the center's board of directors and changed the locks on his brother. Oy! You might expect the lock-changing from Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, but not from the children of the nation's preeminent civil rights martyr.

Tourists at the King Center, which the National Park Service's head ranger, Clark Moore, told me has seen about a 30 percent increase in attendance over the past year despite the turmoil, continued gazing reverently at the flame -- or the spot where it was supposed to be.

They apparently didn't believe their eyes. "Say, man, is that flame out, or am I going blind?" I asked Wayne Gillispie of Detroit. He agreed. "I came all the way down here to see the flame," he said.

When King Center security guard Robert Walker approached, I told him the eternal flame was not eternal.

Walker and other center employees weren't thrilled by my questions about the rundown condition of the center and the soap opera occurring between Dr. King's children.

The center is in a state of what can only charitably be called disrepair. On Friday, rain poured through cracks in the Freedom Tunnel that runs the length of the reflecting pool. Many of the handles on doors are broken -- perhaps from having the locks changed so frequently -- and the reflecting pool on which sits Dr. King's marble tomb has spidery cracks in it.

The Park Service estimates it will take $11 million to fix the damage done to the center by time, the elements and neglect.

There is probably no amount that would fix the damage done by King's children.

If the flame dies permanently and the center loses its remaining relevancy, it will be because of answers to questions such as "Why are both King sons earning six-figure salaries -- about double what similar-sized non-profits pay -- while the center is falling into disrepair?"

Or "Why is Dexter listed as CEO, president and secretary of a company that has been paid more than $4 million to supply most of the center's employees?"

Andrew Young, former Atlanta mayor, has earned the wrath of Martin and Bernice because he supports selling the center to the government.

When I caught Young during a break in Saturday night's annual fund-raising dinner, he struck the diplomatic tone that served him well when he was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

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