Although the family of Maya Angelou have made Saturday’s memorial service private, they are allowing the public to see the service in two different ways. Not only will it be simulcast online, but Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network has been allowed to broadcast the event on TV.
Wake Forest University announced plans to host the service at its Wait Chapel. The service will begin at 10 a.m. ET, with Winfrey herself expected to speak. First Lady Michelle Obama has also signed on to speak about the renowned author and poet.
OWN will also carry the ceremony on its website at Oprah.com/MayaAngelou. Wake Forest will do the same on its website.
Due to the limited capacity of the chapel, the service is only opened to Angelou’s family and invited guests. Angelou taught at the North Carolina university and often visited there to share her work with audiences.
“I've been blessed to have Maya Angelou as my mentor, mother/sister, and friend since my 20’s,” Winfrey said in a statement. “She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life. The world knows her as a poet but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. ‘When you learn, teach. When you get, give’ is one of my best lessons from her.”
Angelou died last week at age 86.
image courtesy of Trem Graboid/INFevents.com