• First lady Michelle Obama salutes poet's example to all women
• Bill Clinton: 'She developed the greatest voice on the planet'
• Oprah Winfrey also addresses Wake Forest Memorial Service
• Maya Angelou, 1928-2014: obituary
• Oprah Winfrey also addresses Wake Forest Memorial Service
• Maya Angelou, 1928-2014: obituary
In a moving tribute to a woman she called “one of the greatest spirits our world has ever known”, first lady Michelle Obama on Saturday thanked the writer Maya Angelou for empowering young black women like herself with her clever, sassy words.
Angelou died last month at the age of 86.
The former president Bill Clinton and TV star Oprah Winfrey were also among speakers and performers at a more-than two-hour memorial service held at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where Angelou taught for 30 years.
Obama said Angelou taught all women that self-worth “has nothing to do with what the world might say”.
“For me,” she said, “that was the power of Maya Angelou’s words, words so powerful they carried a little black girl from the south side of Chicago all the way to the White House.”
Obama added: “She touched me, she touched all of you, she touched people all across the globe, including a young white woman from Kansas who named her daughter after Maya and raised her son to be the first black president of the United States.”
The first lady's nine-minute speech was met with a standing ovation.
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Angelou died last month at the age of 86.
The former president Bill Clinton and TV star Oprah Winfrey were also among speakers and performers at a more-than two-hour memorial service held at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where Angelou taught for 30 years.
Obama said Angelou taught all women that self-worth “has nothing to do with what the world might say”.
“For me,” she said, “that was the power of Maya Angelou’s words, words so powerful they carried a little black girl from the south side of Chicago all the way to the White House.”
Obama added: “She touched me, she touched all of you, she touched people all across the globe, including a young white woman from Kansas who named her daughter after Maya and raised her son to be the first black president of the United States.”
The first lady's nine-minute speech was met with a standing ovation.
More
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