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Maya Angelou’s death comes just before she was to have spoken at a luncheon here in Houston.
The poet and author had cancelled her appearance at the Beacon Awards luncheon Friday because of an illness.
Angelou had been to Houston many times over the years for various speaking engagements.
While discussing travel details for one of those speeches in 2009, Scott Brogan, the founding director of the Brilliant Lecture Series, said Angelou told him she wouldn’t need a plane ticket to Houston.
“She said, you’ll never believe it. I just bought Prince’s bus,” he said. “And she had bought the pop singer Prince’s Purple Reign touring bus for his concerts, and I thought his is not your average grandmother, right?”
Angelou was also a guest on Houston Public Media’s “The Front Row” in January of 2009 and talked about the things she loved to do.
“I could sing, but I never loved it. I love dancing,” Angelou said. “Had my knees not betrayed me, I could have become a great dancer, because you can only become great in those areas in which you are willing to give up everything to get everything.”
Angelou also spoke in Houston in 2011 at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in the Museum District.
She was to have been the guest of honor at Beacon Awards on Friday as part of Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Game at Minute Maid Park that night.
Angelou was 86 years old.
