From NPR's Story:   

Poet, performer and political activist Maya Angelou has died after a long illness at her home in Winston Salem, N.C. She was 86. Born in St. Louis in 1928, Angelou grew up in a segregated society which she worked to change during the civil rights era. Angelou, who refused to speak for much of her childhood, revealed the scars of her past in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of a series of memoirs.

Growing up in St. Louis, Mo., and Stamps, Ark., she was Marguerite Johnson. It was her brother who first called her Maya and the name stuck. Later she added the Angelou, a version of her first husband's name.

Angelou left a troubled childhood and the segregated world of Arkansas behind and began a career as a dancer and singer. She toured Europe in the1950s with a production of Porgy and Bess, studied dance with Martha Graham and performed with Alvin Ailey on television. In 1957 she recorded an album called "Calypso Lady."

"I was known as Miss Calypso, and when I'd forget the lyric, I would tell the audience, 'I seem to have forgotten the lyric.' Now I will dance. And I would move around a bit," she recalled with a laugh during a 2008 interview with NPR.

"She really believed that life was a banquet," says Patrik Henry Bass, an editor at Essence Magazine. When he read Angelou's memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, he saw parallels in his own life in a small town in North Carolina. He says everyone in the African American community looked up to her; she was a celebrity but she was one of them. He remembers seeing her on television and hearing her speak.

"When we think of her, we often think about her books, of course, and her poems," he says. "But in the African American community certainly, we heard so much of her work recited, so I think about her voice. You would hear that voice, and that voice would capture a humanity, and that voice would calm you in so many ways through some of the most significant challenges."

Film director John Singleton grew up in a very different part of the country. But he remembers the effect Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" had on him as a kid. It begins:

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Joanne Braxton, a professor at the College of William and Mary, says Angelou's willingness to reveal the sexual abuse she suffered as a child in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was unprecedented at the time. The critical acclaim and popularity of the book opened doors for both African American and female writers.

"Maya Angelou brought about a paradigm shift in American literature and culture," Braxton says. "So that the works, the gifts, the talents of women writers, including women writers of color, could be brought to the foreground and appreciated. She created an audience by her stunning example."

For Braxton, the world will never be quite the same without Angelou.

"I love her," she says. "She's beloved by many, including many, many people who have never met her in person, and who will never meet her in person — but she has extended herself that way, so that her touch extends beyond her physical embrace. That is truly a gift, and we are truly blessed to have known her through her presence and her work."

Angelou once said she believed that "life loves the liver of it" and she did live it, to the fullest.

Here's another great bit of information on women serving in the US Military, shared with me by a friend.  (This is a great site and lots of fun, so visit Domestic Feminist!)

1.  Disguised as men, women fought in nearly every major Civil          War battle.
2.  Women’s military jobs weren’t for sissies.
3.  Even civilian women died for war efforts.
4.  Hundreds of civilian women piloted military aircraft during              WWII.
5.  Women’s military accomplishments kept proving naysayers          wrong.

Today we honor women who, for the first time in our history, "actively" served in the US Military.   For a great resource and history of many more women who have served, please visit the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation. 

Margaret (Zane) Fleming and 12 other Army nurses with the 1st MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) landed on the beach at Inchon, Korea, on Sept. 15, 1950. Because mobile and evacuation hospitals followed the troops and extremely fluid battle lines, Army nurses often found themselves closer to the front than anticipated. As the 1st MASH moved from Inchon to Pusan with the 7th Infantry Division, they came under attack in the early morning of Oct. 9, 1950. During the battle, the nurses retreated to a roadside ditch. "The whole sky was lit up by gunfire and burning vehicles," reported Chief Nurse MAJ Eunice Coleman. "About sun up we got out of the ditch and started treating the wounded. All that day we worked on the roadside operating and treating for shock. We lost eight men and a number of supply vehicles." After the ambush, the nurses began calling themselves "The Lucky Thirteen."

Jeanne (Hamby) Gang, a Piedmont, CA, native wanted to join the Navy Women’s Reserve (WAVES) during World War II, but was told that she was "too near-sighted." Instead, she joined the American Red Cross but was considered "too young" for overseas assignment, so she served as a recreational and social staff aide in Army and Navy hospitals in her home state. When the Korean War broke out, she volunteered for the Army Special Services and was sent to Germany for two years, where her first assignment was at the 7th Army Headquarters’ Pyramid Service Club. Gang then helped open the service club at Wharton Barracks in Heilbronn.

Sister would be remiss if on this Election Day we didn't share just of few of our sisters t/ whom we sisters owe so much. 

Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. She was brought up in a Quaker family with long activist traditions. Early in her life she developed a sense of justice and moral zeal. After teaching for fifteen years, she became active in temperance. Because she was a woman, she was not allowed to speak at temperance rallies. This experience, and her acquaintance with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, led her to join the women's rights movement in 1852. Soon after, she dedicated her life to woman suffrage. Ignoring opposition and abuse, Anthony traveled, lectured, and canvassed across the nation for the vote. She also campaigned for the abolition of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and retain their earnings, and she advocated for women's labor organizations. In 1900, Anthony persuaded the University of Rochester to admit women.  Anthony, who never felt the need to marry, was aggressive and compassionate by nature. She had a keen mind and a great ability to inspire. She remained active until her death on March 13, 1906

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) is believed to be the driving force behind the 1848 Convention, and for the next fifty years played a leadership role in the women's rights movement. Somewhat overshadowed in popular memory by her long time colleague Susan B. Anthony, Stanton was for many years the architect and author of the movement's most important strategies and documents. Though she became increasingly estranged from the mainstream of the movement, particularly near the end of her career, she maintained to the end her long time friendship with Anthony. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized women's rights and women's suffrage movements in the United States. 

Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) A Quaker and an Abolitionist, she dedicated her life to the goal of human equality.  On July 19 and 20, 1848 She and other leaders of the womens’ rights movement brought to fruition an idea she shared with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and held the First Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Throughout her life Mott remained active in both the abolition and women’s rights movements. She continued to speak out against slavery, and in 1866 she became the first president of the American Equal Rights Association, an organization formed to achieve equality for African Americans and women.

Ladda Tammy Duckworth was born on March 12, 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand, the daughter of a US Marine, Frank, and his wife Lamai, a Thai native.  She was educated at George Washington University, University of Hawaii and Northern Illinois University. 

An Iraq War veteran, Tammy Duckworth served as a US Army helicopter pilot and suffered severe combat wounds, losing both of her legs and damaging her right arm. She was the first female double amputee from the war.  Having received a medical waiver, she continues to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard along with her husband, Major Bryan W. Bowlsbey, a signal officer and fellow Iraq War veteran.  Ms. Duckworth helped establish the "Intrepid Foundation" and is involved in its fundraising to build a rehabilitation center for other injured veterans.  Ms. Duckworth called for improvements in veterans health care and mandatory funding of veterans' health care, rather than discretionary funding that could change with political winds; she also wants improvements in transition assistance for those returning to civilian life, particularly for those with disabilities. Duckworth also wanted the Department of Veterans Affairs to hire more veterans as doctors and nurses because they understand what combat veterans face, and she wants the VA to prepare for the possibility of severe respiratory problems in the future for Iraq war veterans.  

Tammy Duckworth has served as the US Representative for Illinois's 8th congressional district since 2013.