

Patricia Thompson couldn't form a proper sentence.

The Cleveland, Mississippi, native was meeting Maya Angelou, and all she could manage was a series of babbles and incoherent noises.

The renowned poet and author took Thompson's hand and said, "That's OK, darling, don't worry about it."

Suddenly Thompson felt OK. She found her words and had been exchanging letters with the renowned author and poet since that meeting in 1998.

It was chance meetings and moments of grace that Mississippians remembered most about Angelou on Wednesday afternoon, hours after her death was announced by Wake Forest University. She was 86.

She is perhaps best known for her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which made her one of the first African-American women to write a best-seller. The book has also become required reading in high schools and colleges throughout the state and the country.

It was the first time Deborah Barnes remembers reading a book about African-American girls.

"It gave black females the opportunity to see themselves in literature," she said. " 'Caged Bird' is pretty dramatic, but still people weren't writing about the internal feelings of black girls."

In the 1980s Barnes was living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and working for a public relations firm. She was tasked with taking a folder over to Angelou's house. She expected to drop it off and be on her way. Instead, like the Southern lady she was, Angelou invited her to stay. For about an hour, Barnes and Angelou drank sweet tea and sat on the poet's porch.

It's a memory Barnes, now the associate dean of liberal arts at Jackson State University, will always cherish.

"She's one of a kind, but also a particular kind of women who came from that generation," Barnes said. "They know no boundaries. Once you resist the boundaries of gender and race, then anything can happen."

Throughout her life, Angelou made several trips to Mississippi and returned in 1998 to direct the film "Down in the Delta" about a drug-wrecked woman who returns to the home of her ancestors in the Mississippi Delta.

Angela Stewart, an archivist for Jackson State University's Margaret Walker Center, saw Angelou when the poet visited the school in the 1970s. Angelou had been invited by Margaret Walker Alexander, a professor at Jackson State who was one of the poet's mentors.

Stewart sat in the audience and was in awe. Angelou, Stewart said, was down to earth and relatable and still intelligent and deep. She was able to relate to the everyday experiences of women in particular. Now when young African-American women study poetry they typically start with Angelou's "Phenomenal Women" and "Still I Rise," which are about seeing yourself as valuable, even if other people don't see you as valuable, Stewart said.

"That's her lasting legacy, the strength she gave," Stewart said. "Being a black woman from the South does not limit you in any way. If anything, it gives you a better understanding of the plight of people in general because of your experience."

Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, was a guest at Angelou's 2004 appearance at Delta State University's Bologna Performing Arts Center. She spoke to an audience of mostly young people.

"She was her normal self in her presentation in kind of telling the story of America in a warm and heartfelt way," Simmons said Wednesday morning. "But she made it understood that young people had to get their act together, so to speak, for the future."

It was the first time Simmons had met the icon, something he described as like "being a teenager going on your first date."

"Emotions were running real high. A lot of people you meet, the emotions are so high because you know so much about them. That's the way it was that evening. We're saddened to lose her. She has given so much and that will continue forever."

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