Recalling lunch with Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou, shown speaking at SUNY New Paltz in 2003, twice had lunch with Kingston's Haynes Llewellyn. Angelou died Wednesday.Times Herald-Record file

Published: 2:00 AM - 05/30/14 Last updated: 8:14 AM - 05/30/14

KINGSTON Haynes Llewelyn was a freshman in college when he first had lunch with Maya Angelou.

It was, he said, a delightful experience, one that only was magnified a half dozen years later when he had met her again.

Angelou, who died Wednesday, already was a well-known poet and author in 1984. That was when Llewelyn, now a Kingston interior decorator, was assigned to read her most famous book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," as part of a summer reading list before he began attending Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, Ala., in 1984.

She came to the school and gave a reading. There were about 300 people in the audience.

"She had a beautiful voice. She read, and nobody moved."

Afterward, Llewellyn and some other students were invited to join Angelou for lunch.

"She was terribly nice. She'd been raised by a strong grandmother. We had that in common, we spoke about it."

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Recalling lunch with Maya Angelou