Born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis and raised between there and Stamps, Arkansas, Maya Angelou led a number of lives in one life. She was a nightclub performer, a cook, a sex worker, a cast member in Porgy and Bess, and a correspondent. She wrote seven biographies, the first being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She wrote the poem "On the Pulse of Morning" which she recited at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, the first poet to do so since Robert Frost in 1961. She received over 50 honorary degrees.