Maya Angelou, a child of the Jim Crow South who rose to international prominence as a writer known for her frank chronicles of personal history and a performer instantly identified by her regal presence and rich, honeyed voice, died May 28 at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 86.
Her literary agent, Helen Brann, confirmed the death but said she did not know the immediate cause. Ms. Angelou had heart ailments and had been in declining health for years.
She established her literary reputation in 1970 with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” a memoir detailing the racism and abuse she endured during her harrowing childhood.
From her desperate early years, Ms. Angelou gradually moved into nightclub dancing and from there began a career in the arts that spanned more than 60 years. She sang cabaret and calypso, danced with Alvin Ailey, acted on Broadway, directed for film and television and wrote more than 30 books, including poetry, essays and, responding to the public's appetite for her life story, six autobiographies.
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