Maya Angelou Life Summary
Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist who lived from April 4, 1928 until May 28, 2014. She is the author of seven autobiographies, three collections of essays, and six collections of poetry, as well as a long list of plays, films, and television shows spanning more than 50 years.
She was honored with hundreds of honors and over 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is most known for her seven autobiographies, which chronicle her upbringing and early adulthood. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), her debut book, chronicles her childhood up to the age of seventeen and earned her international renown.
After a series of odd professions in her early age, she became a poet and writer. During the decolonization of Africa, these jobs included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana.
She was also a playwright, director, and producer who worked on plays, movies, and public television shows. She was appointed to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies in 1982.
She was a civil rights activist who collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She began making about 80 appearances per year on the lecture circuit in the 1990s and continued until she was in her eighties.
Angelou performed her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993, making her the first poet to do so since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.
With the release of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou made personal details of her life public. Her works have been regarded as a defense of Black culture, and she was acknowledged as a voice for Black people and women.
Her writings are extensively utilized in schools and institutions around the world, despite attempts to remove them from some US libraries. Many reviewers believe Angelou’s most famous books to be autobiographies, despite the fact that they have been categorized as autobiographical fiction.
By criticising, modifying, and enlarging the autobiography genre, she made an intentional endeavor to disrupt its common form. Racism, identity, family, and travel are all themes in her writings.
Maya Angelou Husband
Maya was married at least twice, but never stated how many times “for fear of looking frivolous”; according to her autobiographies and Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951 and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her romance with Vusumzi Make in 1961 but never married him.
Maya Angelou Net Worth at death
Angelou was estimated to have a net worth of $12 million dollars at the time of her death. She had accumulated her net worth from the versatility she had shown in each field she had worked in. Her main source of earning was from her career as a poet, author, teacher, activist, actress, and public speaker.
Maya Angelou Cause of Death
Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014, at the age of 86. Her nurse discovered her. Despite being in poor health and canceling recent events, Angelou was working on a new book, an autobiography of her interactions with national and international leaders.
Her son Guy Johnson said during her funeral service at Wake Forest University that she published four novels in the last ten years of her life despite being in continual agony from her dance career and respiratory failure. “She exited this mortal realm with no loss of clarity or comprehension,” he stated.
Artists, entertainers, and world leaders paid tribute to Angelou, including Barack Obama, whose sister is named after her, and Bill Clinton. Angelou’s “legacy is one that all writers and readers throughout the world may respect and aspire to,” according to Harold Augenbraum of the National Book Foundation. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings reached number one on Amazon.com’s bestseller list a week after Angelou’s death.
Angelou was honored in a public memorial ceremony on May 29, 2014, at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, where she had been a member for 30 years. On June 7, a private memorial ceremony was held at Wake Forest University’s Wait Chapel in Winston-Salem.
With statements from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton, the memorial was broadcast live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site. A memorial service was held on June 15 at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou had been a long-time member. Mayor Ed Lee, Rev. Cecil Williams, and former mayor Willie Brown all spoke.
Maya Angelou Son
Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she chronicled in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren, and a huge circle of friends and extended family, according to Gillespie.
Angelou’s mother, Vivian Baxter, died in 1991, and her brother, Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after suffering a series of strokes; both were significant influences in her life and writings. Her grandson’s mother vanished with him in 1981, and it took four years to discover him.
Guy Johnson Biography and Wikipedia
Guy Johnson (full name, Guy Bailey Johnson), Dr. Maya Angelou’s son, graduated from college in Egypt. He operated a bar on Spain’s Costa del Sol after graduation, ran a picture safari service from London to the Spanish Sahara via Morocco and Algeria, and worked on oil rigs in Kuwait.
He just took a medical vacation from the city of Oakland, California, where he had worked for nearly twenty years as a manager. Johnson’s poetry has appeared in Essence magazine and in an anthology of black male poets called My Brother’s Keeper. With his wife and son, he lives in Oakland.
Guy Johnson Angelou Father
Guy Johnson’s father is not publicly known, here is the story behind his birth
At just 16 years, she became pregnant after having sex to prove she wasn’t a lesbian. Upon telling her mother about her pregnancy, Angelou later recounted: “She asked me, ‘Do you love the boy?’ I said no. ‘Does he love you?’ I said no. ‘Well, there’s no point in ruining three lives. We’re going to have us a baby,'”. Angelou gave birth to her only son, Guy Johnson, just one month after her high school graduation.
Angelou moved out of her mother’s house at the age of 17 since she had a new infant to look after. She found a room to rent in San Francisco, and the landlady agreed to babysit her son while she did odd jobs to make ends meet. Angelou described some of the jobs she had at the time in her book, including “a shake dancer in night clubs, fry cook in hamburger joints, dinner cook in a Creole restaurant and once had a job in a mechanic’s shop, taking the paint off cars with my hands,” via Poetry Foundation.
She began a relationship with an older man named L.D., who was married and had a gambling problem, while she was in her late teens. After losing over $5,000 in gaming, he persuaded Angelou to work at a brothel in order to pay off his debt. Angelou accepted, believing they would marry once they had enough money, and she worked as a prostitute and madam for a brief period.
While some critics have noted that this period of Angelou’s life is typically glossed over or left out of her subsequent biographies, Angelou herself was very forthright about her time as a sex worker, recounting the experience her 1974 memoir Gather Together in my Name: “The faces, bodies and smells of the tricks made an unending paisley pattern in my mind. […] The strong Lysol washing water stung my eyes and a film of vapor coated my adenoids,” via archive.org.
Guy Johnson Age
Guy is 77 years of age as of 2022, he was born in 1945, in New York City, United States. He has been celebrating his birthday every year together with his family and friends.
| Year | 2021 | 2022 |
| Guy Johnson Age | 76 years | 77 years |
Guy Johnson Height
Johnson stands at an average height of 5 ft 7 in (Approx 1.7m) he has moderate weight.
Guy Johnson Wife
Johnson is married to his wife Stephanie Floyd-Johnson.
Stephanie Floyd-Johnson Age
Stephanie is over 70 years old as of 2022, she was born in the United States of America. She has been celebrating her birthday every year together with her family and friends. We are keeping tabs on Floyd-Johnson’s age and will update this section with more information about her date of birth once available.
Stephanie Floyd-Johnson Height
Floyd-Johnson stands at an average height of 5 feet 6 inches approximately 1.69 m. Her weight, hair color, eye color, bra size, waist and bust size will be updated as soon as the details are available.
Guy Johnson Net Worth
Johnson is estimated to have a net worth of $3 million dollars at present. He has accumulated his net worth with the versatility he has shown in each field he has worked in. His main source of earning is from his career as an Author. As he progresses in his career, his net worth is projected to rise.
Guy Johnson Angelou Now (Today)
Guy lives in Oakland with his wife and sons.