[AUTHOR & POET] MAYA ANGELOU FOUND DEAD BY HER CAREGIVER

Maya Angelou died Wednesday at the age of 86, these sad news have been confirmed by her publisher, Random House. Maya's caregiver found her dead in her home Wednesday morning.

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At the age of 85, Angelou she was presented  with an award for "Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the National Book Awards in New York.

From her wheelchair, Angelou dazzled the crowd by singing a verse of a spiritual: "When it looked like it wouldn't stop raining, God put a rainbow in the clouds."

On showing gratitude she said, "For over 40 years, I have tried to tell the truth as I understand it. ... I haven't tried to tell everything I know, but I've tried to tell the truth."

In 1993, she wrote and delivered a poem at President Clinton's inaugural. Her recording of the poem won a Grammy.

The poem Amazing Peace, which she wrote for the lighting of the White House Christmas Tree in 2005, reached No. 12 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.

On her childhood: Ner parents divorced when she was only 3 years. Her father sent her and her 4-year-old brother alone by train to live with his mother in segregated Stamps.

At 8, she went to St. Louis to visit her mother and was raped by her mother's boyfriend. The man was murdered by her uncles, as a result she felt responsible. She stopped talking to everyone but her brother for five years. Finally, at 12, a teacher got her to speak again.

"The news came on the wings of a wind/Reluctant to carry its burden. Maya Angelou's day is done." Taken from a poem she wrote following Nelson Mandela's death