Listen Live
Listen Live Graphics (Indy)

Angelou was due to receive the “Beacon of Life Award” at the 2014 MLB Beacon Award Luncheon on May 30 in Houston. The MLB announced that she had canceled her appearance, citing health reasons. She died in her home in Winston-Salem, according to a report from WXII

.

From WXII12.com

Two independent sources close to Angelou confirmed her death to WXII’s Wanda Starke Wednesday morning. She was 86.

 

A police car, an ambulance and a hearse were seen outside Angelou’s home on Bartram Road around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Winston-Salem police said they are at the home to investigate a death.

 

The area near Angelou’s home has been blocked off to try to keep people out of the area, as well as to give respect to the family, WXII’s Talitha Vickers reported.

 

Angelou, a Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, was born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis. In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to serve as northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

 

Angelou received many accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008.