TOP STORY// Award-winning author, renowned poet and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou was found dead in her Winston-Salem, N.C., home Wednesday morning. She was 86.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Jones confirmed Angelou's death to Fox News. Police reportedly were at her home investigating. A press conference is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. ET.
Angelou,
who rose from poverty as a child raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Ark.,
to become a cultural icon, gained widespread acclaim for her first book,
her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," making her one of
the first African-American women to write a best-seller.
In
1998, she directed the film "Down in the Delta" about a drug-addicted
woman who returns to the home of her ancestors in the Mississippi Delta.
She was the poet chosen to read at President Bill Clinton's first
inauguration in 1993. She wrote and read an original composition, "On
the Pulse of Morning," which became a million-seller.
Major
League Baseball announced last week that Angelou would not attend its
2014 Beacon Awards Luncheon, where she was to be honored, due to health
concerns. Angelou also canceled an event in April in Fayetteville, Ark.,
because of an "unexpected ailment" that sent her to the hospital.
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"Dr.
Angelou was a national treasure whose life and teachings inspired
millions around the world, including countless students, faculty and
staff at Wake Forest, where she served as Reynolds Professor of American
Studies since 1982," Wake Forest University said in a statement. "Our
thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Angelou's family and friends during
this difficult time."
Born
Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928, Angelou was raised in
Stamps, Ark., and San Francisco, moving back and forth between her
parents and grandmother. She was reportedly sent to California after
sassing a white store clerk in Arkansas and, at other times, did not
speak at all. She was raped by her mother's boyfriend at age 7 and did
not speak for years afterward, instead learning by reading and
listening.
"I
loved the poetry that was sung in the black church: 'Go down Moses, way
down in Egypt's land,'" Angelou told The Associated Press. "It just
seemed to me the most wonderful way of talking. And 'Deep River.' Ooh!
Even now it can catch me. And then I started reading, really reading, at
about 7 ½, because a woman in my town took me to the library, a black
school library. ... And I read every book, even if I didn't understand
it."
By
age 9, Angelou was writing poetry, and by 17 she was a single mother.
In her early 20s, she danced at a strip club, ran a brothel and married
Enistasious Tosh Angelos (the first of her three husbands) before
divorcing. By her mid-20s, she performed alongside another future star —
Phyllis Diller — at the Purple Onion in San Francisco. She also spent a
few days with Billie Holiday, who was astute enough to tell her:
"You're going to be famous. But it won't be for singing."
Angelou
later renamed herself for the stage, choosing her childhood nickname
before touring in "Porgy and Bess" and Jean Genet's "The Blacks" and
dancing alongside Alvin Ailey. She also worked for years in Egypt and
Ghana, where she met Malcolm X and remained close to him until his
assassination in 1965. Three years later, Angelou helped the Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., organize a march in Memphis, Tenn., where the civil
rights leader was killed on Angelou's 40th birthday.
Angelou
was little known outside of the theatrical community until "I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings," which was published in 1969. The memoir was
occasionally attacked as "manipulative" melodrama and her passages on
rape and teen pregnancy have made it a mainstay on the American Library
Association's list of works that draw complaints from parents and
educators.
"'I
thought that it was a mild book. There's no profanity," Angelou told
the AP. "It speaks about surviving, and it really doesn't make ogres of
many people. I was shocked to find there were people who really wanted
it banned, and I still believe people who are against the book have
never read the book."
