The renowned writer, actress and civil rights activist died in May at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. at the age of 86. Born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Angelou held several jobs, including being a manager for prostitutes, a restaurant cook and the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, before she became a dancer and toured Europe with the opera production Porgy and Bess. In 1959, she met novelist James O. Killens, who urged her to concentrate on her writing. Her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was published in 1969 to critical acclaim. Angelou went on to write seven autobiographies, spoke more than six languages and earned over 30 honorary degrees. She also received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her collection of poems called Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, a Tony nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away and three Grammys for spoken albums, and in 2010, she was awarded the U.S.' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama.
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