I asked her: “Could you give me any special message to students as they read the autobiographies and the criticism?” She replied, “Somebody needs to tell young people, listen, I did this and I did that. You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated” (“Icon” 1997). Death did finally defeat Dr. Maya Angelou, who died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on the morning of May 24, 2014. She was eighty-six years old. On June 7, Wake Forest University held a funeral in her memory entitled “A Celebration of Rising ‘Joy’”! The entire ceremony was televised by Wake Forest University and is still available on the Internet, as is the funeral program (Wake Forest University Funeral. http://new.livestream.com/wfu/angelou. Web. May 5, 2015). The elaborate preparations for the funeral were overshadowed by threats from the Westboro Baptist Church, a notorious right-wing organization. Wake Forest University wisely closed its campus to the public on June 7, permitting entry only to the designated guests and to selected media.
