NATCHEZ — While many remembered poet and author Maya Angelou Wednesday for her published work, some in Natchez remembered her for some unexpected help she provided a local sick woman in 1995.

Angelou, a modern Renaissance woman who survived the harshest of childhoods to become a force on stage, screen, the printed page and the inaugural dais, died at her home Wednesday. She was 86.

Angelou was the headline speaker for the 1995 Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, and gave a performance reciting poetry and talking about her writing and career to a packed City Auditorium, NLCC Founder Carolyn Vance Smith said.

“We have always said, ‘We sold 1,500 tickets, and we could have sold 1,500 more,” Smith said.

During Angelou’s visit to Natchez, Mayor Butch Brown said a friend asked him to approach the writer about hosting a book-signing benefit for a friend with pancreatic cancer, Tootsie Thompson, who was having a tough time with the cost of treatment.

Angelou didn’t do private appearances at the time, Smith said, but agreed to have the signing if it could be limited to 100 people.

“Dr. Angelou said she would do the private appearance after the performance, and we could charge whatever we wanted and she would not charge,” Smith said. “We advertised the event, and in 48 hours we had sold 100 tickets and raised $10,000.”

The event was at Mount Repose — which Brown’s wife owns — and the mayor said Angelou was gracious, signing autographs and conversing for hours.

“She was very polite and proper,” he said.

Speaking to The Natchez Democrat at the time, Angelou said she was doing the fundraiser because all life is connected and when one person suffers, we all suffer.

“If I can help save her life, I can help in saving mine,” she said at the time.

Tall and regal, with a deep, majestic voice, Angelou defied all probability and category, becoming one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream success as an author and thriving in virtually every artistic medium.

The young single mother who worked at strip clubs to earn a living later wrote and recited the most popular presidential inaugural poem in history.

The childhood victim of rape wrote a million-selling memoir, befriended Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and performed on stages around the world.

An actress, singer and dancer in the 1950s and 1960s, she broke through as an author in 1969 with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which became standard  —and occasionally censored — reading, and was the first of a multipart autobiography that continued through the decades.

In 1993, she was a sensation reading her cautiously hopeful “On the Pulse of the Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. Her confident performance openly delighted Clinton and made the poem a best-seller, if not a critical favorite. For President George W. Bush, she read another poem, “Amazing Peace,” at the 2005 Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the White House.

“She writes from the heart, and she uses imagery, powerful imagery that people can relate to,” Smith said. “She speaks the truth and you know it is the truth when you read it. It is the kind of poetry you can skim, then read slowly and then go back and it read line by line. It is so powerful on so many levels.”

The confirmation that booking Angelou for the NLCC was the right move came for Vance during Angelou’s performance.

“Several high school students were sitting behind my husband and me, and when Dr. Angelou came out in that gorgeous aqua green gown — and her stage presence was electric — and started reciting her poem, they started reciting it with her,” Smith said. “It was the most exciting thing to me as a teacher.”

Brown said before Angelou left, she asked through an assistant if she could take a bottle of Johnny Walker black label scotch with her. She also asked for a napkin and a cocktail glass.

Brown said he accommodated the request, and a few weeks later — when Angelou was done with the bottle of Scotch — he received a package in the mail with the crystal glass, the napkin and a personal note of thanks.

“She took out of her time, took herself out of her normal personality and role and really became an integral part of the evening, and had a wonderful time herself,” he said.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.