Vivian Ayers Allen, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet, scholar, and artist who was additionally the mom of Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad, has died at 102. On Thursday, Debbie Allen shared the information with a poetic tribute that mirrored her mom’s personal inventive spirit.
“Mommie you may have remodeled into that cosmic fowl Hawk that lives and breathes Freedom. We are going to observe your path of golden mud and proceed to climb increased. We promise to be true, be lovely, be Free. Love Love Love Love Love,” wrote Allen.
A local of Chester, South Carolina, Vivian Ayers Allen was a trailblazer in her personal proper. Her literary profession started in Houston, Texas, with the publication of her assortment of poems, Spice of Dawns, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1952.
Enlarged reproductions of her writings had been exhibited on the Lyndon B. Johnson Area Middle in Houston. Ms. Allen was celebrated as one of many “Hidden Figures” of the Apollo 11 Area Mission, and her contributions had been honored by NASA when Constructing 12 on the Johnson Area Middle was renamed the “Dorothy Vaughan Middle in Honor of Ladies of Apollo.”
Ms. Allen attended Barber-Scotia Faculty and Bennett Faculty and acquired honorary doctorate levels from each Bennett Faculty and Wilberforce College. She was the founding father of the Brainerd Institute, a cultural middle in South Carolina, and established her personal publishing firm, Adept Home.
She is survived by her youngsters, Hugh Allen, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, Andrew Arthur “Tex” Allen Jr, and her quite a few grandchildren, together with Condola Rashad and Vivian Nixon; and a bunch of different members of the family
