A phenomenal woman has passed on. Iconic author, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died at the age of 86.
Angelou was found unresponsive at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, just a few days after she canceled an appearance at the Major League Baseball Beacon Awards Luncheon in Houston where she was to be honored.
She was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928. At the age of three, she and her brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Arkansas, where she would witness both racial discrimination and the rich, vibrant life of the black community, things that would inform her work, including her most famous memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, published in 1970.
Angelou went on to produce more than 30 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie, and Still I Rise, and appeared in films and TV shows like Poetic Justice and Roots.
Read more about Angelou's legendary life HERE.
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