Memorial service planned for poet Maya Angelou in North Carolina

[June 03, 2014]  WINSTON-SALEM N.C. (Reuters) - The family of author and poet Maya Angelou will hold a private memorial service for her on Saturday in the North Carolina city she called home for three decades.

The service at Wake Forest University, where Angelou was a longtime professor, will be limited to family and friends but streamed live online for public viewing, the university in Winston-Salem said on Monday.

Angelou died at her home in Winston-Salem on Wednesday at age 86. She wrote more than 30 books, including "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," a groundbreaking autobiography that helped give black women writers a literary voice, and recited a poem at Bill Clinton's 1993 presidential inauguration.

Media magnate Oprah Winfrey will speak during her close friend's funeral at Wake Forest's Wait Chapel, she told the "Entertainment Tonight" television show.

Angelou's family plans to release details about additional celebrations of her life in other U.S. cities at a later time, the university said.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Bill Trott)

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