Poet, actress, St. Louis native Maya Angelou dies

Renowned poet, actress, author and educator Maya Angelou died yesterday at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. Angelou, a St. Louis native, was 86.

No cause of death was given, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

An actress and singer in the 1950s and 1960s, Angelou became known as an author in 1970 with “Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which was the first installment of a multipart autobiography that continued through the decades. In 1982, she became a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, and in 1993, she presented a highly popular reading of her poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” during President Bill Clinton’s inauguration ceremony.

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