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Celebrated writer, artiste, civil rights icon Maya Angelou dies at age 86
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, the award-winning writer, poet, actress and civil rights activist, was found dead Wednesday morning inside her Winston-Salem, N.C., home.
The 86-year-old icon, who survived a childhood rape that left her mute to find a voice heard around the world, was discovered by her caretaker, according to an announcement from Wake Forest University.
Angelou lived in an 18-room home on the campus, where she taught American Studies.
The increasingly frail Angelou was battling heart problems, and recently canceled her appearance at an event in her honor scheduled for this Friday.
The often lauded Angelou was set to received the “Beacon of Life Award” as part of major league baseball’s annual Civil Rights Games. Angelou was a Pulitzer Prize nominee and repeat White House guest, reading the poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration.
U.S. President Barack Obama, honored her in February 2011 with a Medal of Freedom.
In her last post via Twitter, Angelou offered one parting bit of advice: “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.”
The best-selling St. Louis native, during her remarkable lifetime, published more than 30 titles and received more than 50 honorary degrees.
Her breakthrough book was her best-selling 1970 memoir, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” a work encouraged by her novelist friend James Baldwin. The book made literary history as the first non-fiction best-seller by an African American woman, and became the first of 6 autobiographical works.
