Maya Angelou 'the brightest light' says Barack Obama

Thursday, May 29, 2014

US President Barack Obama has led the tributes to Maya Angelou, describing the poet, author and activist as "one of the brightest lights of our time".

He hailed Angelou, who has died aged 86, as "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman".

She made her name with the memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which charted a childhood of oppression and abuse in the Deep South in the 1930s.

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