Her book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is one of her most well-known writings. Maya Angelou only resided in this house for the first three years of her life, but the city and its citizens are proud of their shared legacy as Maya Angelou's birthplace because of the poet's effect on the current Civil Rights Movement...and the world. Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928. Her mother died when she was just four years old, and she was brought up by her father who had many other children with his wife. At a very young age, she started writing poems and stories, which encouraged her parents to get her an education. In 1945, at the age of 19, she graduated from Bennington College near Vermont with a degree in English literature. After graduating, she moved to California where she worked as a nurse before joining the United States Army in 1952. She served for two years in Europe, where she witnessed the aftermath of World War II, and later as a public information officer in South Carolina. Upon leaving the army, she traveled around the world for several months before returning to America. The experience inspired her to write more about her life experiences in her next book "Greetings from California". In 1966, Angelou decided to move back to St Louis where she could be close to her family.