NEW YORK (AP) — Maya Angelou, a renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, died Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 86.
She was an actress, singer and dancer in the 1950s and 1960s and made a brave and sensational debut as an author in 1969 with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” This novel became standard reading and made Angelou one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream literary success.
She called herself a poet, in love with the “sound of language” and “the music in language,” as she explained to The Associated Press in 2013.
Her very name was a reinvention. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis and raised in Arkansas and San Francisco. At age 7, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and didn’t talk for years. She learned by reading and listening.
At age 9, she was writing poetry. By 17, she was a single mother. In her early 20s, she danced at a strip joint, ran a brothel, got married and then divorced.
After renaming herself Maya Angelou for the stage, she toured in “Porgy and Bess” and Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” and danced with Alvin Ailey. She worked as a coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and lived for years in Egypt and Ghana, where she met Nelson Mandela, a longtime friend, and Malcolm X, to whom she remained close until his assassination, in 1965.
Active on the lecture circuit, she gave commencement speeches and addressed academic and corporate events across the country. Angelou received dozens of honorary degrees and several elementary schools were named for her.
QUOTES
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
“Over the course of her remarkable life, Maya was many things — an author, poet, civil rights activist, playwright, actress, director, composer, singer and dancer. But above all, she was a storyteller — and her greatest stories were true. A childhood of suffering and abuse actually drove her to stop speaking — but the voice she found helped generations of Americans find their rainbow amidst the clouds, and inspired the rest of us to be our best selves.”
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON
“With Maya Angelou’s passing, America has lost a national treasure; and Hillary and I, a beloved friend. The poems and stories she wrote and read to us in her commanding voice were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace. I will always be grateful for her electrifying reading of ‘On the Pulse of Morning’ at my first inaugural, and even more for all the years of friendship that followed. Now she sings the songs the Creator gave to her when the river ‘and the tree and the stone were one.’”
FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
“She was among the most talented writers of our time. Her words inspired peace and equality and enriched the culture of our country. We are grateful for the work she leaves behind, and we wish her the peace she always sought.”
OPRAH WINFREY
“She won three Grammys, spoke six languages and was the second poet in history to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration. But what stands out to me most about Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken, it’s how she lived her life. She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace. I loved her and I know she loved me. I will profoundly miss her. She will always be the rainbow in my clouds.”
THE REV. JESSE JACKSON
“For those who never saw her, they can now listen to her and learn. She has much to teach this generation and generations unborn about what it means to be an authentic person and the power of the genuine. When she spoke, people listened. When she wrote, people read, and that happened because she lived and she was the word that became flesh and dwelled among us.”
QUINCY JONES
“From collaborating on two songs on my soundtrack for ‘For Love of Ivy’ in 1968 to delivering her poem ‘Pulse of the Morning’ during the Clinton Inaugural in 1992, working with Maya always brought joy and love. As an author and poet, Maya Angelou’s ability to channel God’s voice and express the feelings deep within all of humanity will never be matched by another. She gave us words when we could find none, and helped us to see clearly when the light was dimmest. Maya would always teasingly say to me, ‘Darling, let’s have lurnch,’ and I will always be ready. I will miss her deeply, but I know her presence will always be with us.”
ARETHA FRANKLIN
“So sorry to hear about the passing of such a great woman. In addition to ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,’ I loved her recipes and manner! Wisdom at work! Enlightening for a nation!”
BERRY GORDY, MOTOWN FOUNDER
“Dr. Maya Angelou was a towering cultural figure — a woman of courage and strength. She took the music of the heart and transformed it into words and imagery that moved my heart and the world’s. She was a true friend. I will miss her.”
TIMELINE
April 4, 1928: Maya Angelou is born as Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis Missouri.
1936: Her mother’s boyfriend rapes her, and she became mute for five years.
1937: She begins writing poetry.
1945: She becomes a single mother at 17.
1954: She changes her name to Maya Angelou, a variation of her husband’s last name and a childhood nickname.
1957: She releases her first album, “Miss Calypso.”
1962: She moves to Accra, Ghana, with her son Guy and remained there until 1965.
1968: She helps Martin Luther King Jr. organize the Poor People’s March in Memphis, Tennessee, where King is killed on Angelou’s 40th birthday.
1969: Her first autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” comes out.
1973: She is nominated for a Tony for her appearance in the play “Look Away.”
1981: She becomes a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
1993: She recites her poem, “On the Pulse of the Morning,” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
2000: She creates a successful collection of products for Hallmark.
2002: She finishes her sixth biography, “A Song Flung Up to Heaven.”
2013: She publishes “Mom & Me & Mom,” an autobiography focusing on her relationship with her mother.
2013: She receives an honorary National Book Award for her contributions to the literary community.
May 28, 2014: Found unresponsive at her North Carolina home at the age of 86
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