Maya Angelou, died May 28, 2014

"I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory"

A 2008 PBS documentary found that Maya Angelou's maternal great-grandmother Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her former white owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After indicting Savin for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite discovering that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in  Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother.

Maya Angelou campaigned for Senator Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries.  When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Senator Barack Obama, who went on to win the election and become the first African American president of the United States. She stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism."

In CNN's 2009 interview, Angelou spoke in the way that she came to be famous for, each sentence a crescendo of emotion, a call to everyone to act and to be better:

"Our country needs us all right now to stand up and be counted. We need to try to be great citizens. We are necessary in this country, and we need to give something -- that is to say, go to a local hospital, go to the children's ward and offer to the nurse in charge an hour twice a month that you can give them reading children's stories or poetry.  And go to an old folks' home and read the newspaper to somebody. Go to your church or your synagogue or your mosque, and say, 'I'd like to be of service. I have one hour twice a month.'
You'll be surprised at how much better you will feel. 

And good done anywhere is good done everywhere. 

She hosted several celebrations per year at her residence in Winston-Salem, including Thanksgiving; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food".  She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother.

February 15, 2011: Angelou receives Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama

In 2013, at the age of 85, she published the seventh autobiography in her series, Mom & Me & Mom, which focused on her relationship with her mother.

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

On May 23, 2014, Angelou sent out a tweet on twitter:

Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

She died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on the morning of Wednesday, May 28, 2014.

Oprah Winfrey released a statement calling Angelou her mentor, "mother/sister" and friend":

April 5, 2014
 Angelou with Cicely Tyson and Oprah Winfrey

"She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life. The world knows her as a poet but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. 'When you learn, teach. When you get, give' is one of my best lessons from her. 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."

Nikki Giovanni:

She always reminded herself that joy is important. So she wanted to receive it, and the best way to receive it is to give it.

"All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated."

"Look where we've all come from ... coming out of darkness, moving toward the light."