Maya Angelou Talks About Her New Memoir, Motherhood, And Her Own Mother & Grandmother

Maya Angelou has a new memoir about the two maternal figures she had as a young woman. In her new memoir, entitled Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou, 85,  an activist and author of poems, novels, and plays,  recounts her relationships with her grandmother, Annie Henderson, and her mother, Vivian Baxter. Maya Angelou lived with her grandmother from ages 3 and 13, then returned to her mother in California.

Angeou also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show's "Super Soul Sunday" on Mother's Day to talk about her memoir and the birth of her son, Guy Johnson, who she had when she was 16. "My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine," Angelou said on the show.

Maya Angelou's grandmother was from St. Louis and grew up poor but street-smart. Her mother, on the other hand, was from a tiny, genteel town in Arkansas, and exemplified proper Southern manners. Some of the time Angelou lived with her grandmother was detailed in the bestselling "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings".

Angelou had a hard time leaving her grandmother. "It was terrible, because she (Annie) really loved me," Angelou told the Associate Press. "She never once kissed me the whole time in Stamps, that I can remember, but she loved me. She was so proud of me, and the fact that I was a mute and had my own problems, she never took the position that, 'Oh, well you've been so injured.' She'd say, 'You're gonna be a teacher. Sister you're gonna teach all over this world.' She taught me how to be a victor."

Her mother was tough too, though. Shortly after Angelou went to live with her again, they stayed at a hotel in Fresno, CA that had just been integrated. Once they were in their room safely, Vivian showed Maya that she had a gun - she'd been holding a .38 revolver in her purse."If they were not ready for integration," she told her daughter "I was ready to show it to them."

Angelou's relationship with her mother was sometimes difficult, but Mom & Me & Mom tells her story of forgiveness.

"I began to like her," Angelou said. "She had everything.....and when she saw people who were poor, who were crippled or uncomfortable in their skin, she didn't laugh at them, and I liked that in her. It was a big heart."