* Angelou, who never attended college, has been awarded more than 30honorary degrees and has served as the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina since 1981.

* In 1998 Angelou issued a public service announcement in support of a National Council of Churches campaign to persuade the U.S. Senate to ratify the Kyoto Protocol as a means of combating global warming.

* In 2001 President Bill Clinton, shortly before leaving office, appointedAngelou to the board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

* Angelou received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’ fore I Die, a book of poetry. She also was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.