STAMPS, Ark. -- Mayor David Ray Bright walked haltingly Saturday across the lacquered hardwood floors of the Lafayette County High School gymnasium toward a fern-adorned podium. He clenched rolled-up sheets of paper tighter in his hand as he looked into the stands where more than 200 people waited for him to speak.
"I don't know what to say," Bright said, then burst into tears.
The small, rural town near the southwest corner of the state came together Saturday to host a celebration of the life of poet and author Maya Angelou. Young students, dressed in black slacks and white shirts with ties, greeted numerous visitors -- including state officials, friends of Angelou's from around the nation and Angelou's grandson Elliott Jones from Miami.
Born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Angelou was sent to Stamps when she was 3 to live with her paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson.
Saturday's remembrance of the world-renowned poet, author, singer and civil-rights activist was the town's first-ever public gathering in recognition of Angelou, who called Stamps her childhood home.
There had been a long-held friction between the author and the town after Angelou's harsh description of Stamps as a segregated town in her 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
At the time of Angelou's May 28 death, Bright told an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter that "there's not a lot of celebration about her here. We don't have a park named after her, or a library named after her. There's not a lot to signify that she lived here."
Bright told the crowd Saturday that the night after Angelou's death -- after hordes of state and national journalists descended on the town of about 2,100 -- he read I know Why the Caged Bird Sings for the second time since the early 1970s.
In the days that followed Angelou's death, Bright said he went 13 times to Lake June, which is "the pond" Angelou mentioned numerous times in her book. It was there that Bright said he decided the park surrounding the pond should be named in Angelou's honor.
The Stamps City Council passed the resolution on the park's name unanimously in June.
Angelou's life, Bright said, is a testament to just how far people can go in their lives -- even when they're from a small Arkansas town. Bright had been a mailman for 35 years before he became mayor in January.
"If you look at her life as a sum total, it's one of the most unique lives that anybody can imagine. But if you take her life in snapshots, it's all of us. We can take a part of her life and we can see ourselves. That's me. She's talking about me," Bright said, sobbing.
"That's the way I feel. She had this unique ability to take the life that we all have, and she could articulate what we were feeling. That's what I wanted to say, but I didn't know how. You felt like she knew you. That little girl by the pond, we're all there at some point in our lives. And sometimes ... sometimes it's an old mailman who decides he's going to be mayor."
One by one, more than 20 people filed to the podium Saturday to pay homage to Angelou. Janis Kearney, co-chairman of the event, read a letter from former President Bill Clinton and a message in Angelou's honor from U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor was read by his spokesman, Amy Schlesing.
Akasha Hull, a spokesman for Gov. Mike Beebe, read a proclamation from the governor declaring Saturday as "Celebrate Maya Angelou" Day. Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, told stories of meeting Angelou and relayed memories told to her by her grandmother, who figured prominently in Angelou's childhood.
State Rep. Lane Jean, R-Magnolia, read a citation from the state House of Representatives and announced that a statue of Angelou would be placed on the shore of the pond in the park that will be named in her honor.
Jones -- Angelou's grandson -- told the crowd that he considered himself a "grandchild of the state of Arkansas." Angelou, he said, would often regale him with stories of her childhood in Stamps.
"She said the truth is you can never leave home. You take it with you wherever you go," Jones said.
"It meant so much for her to be from this town, to be a young girl from Stamps, Ark., who would go on to address kings and queens and presidents," Jones added.
His voice cracked as he looked into the crowd.
"This would not have been possible when my grandmother was a little girl," he said.
After the event, Jones posed for dozens of pictures and signed autographs.
Versie Bradley of Stamps said Angelou was a lifelong inspiration as Bradley grew up and then spent 21 years in the Army. She held out the white brochure on which Jones had inscribed a personal message.
"This is going in my curio cabinet at home," she said, eyes wide as she clutched the paper to her chest. "She showed us that you can be from a small, rural town and you're able to progress, to succeed. There's more out there for a person to see. This was a major event today. It will make Stamps even more famous."
Ragatte Brown, who lives in nearby Buckner, said Saturday's celebration will be the first of many in Stamps for Angelou.
"We need to keep paying tribute to Maya Angelou and the time she spent here. We have to help celebrate her legacy," Brown said.
The celebration -- which was a collaborative effort between Bright and the recently formed Celebrate Maya Project -- will be an annual tradition in Stamps, Kearney said.
The Celebrate Maya Project includes Arkansas authors, artists, community leaders, and cultural and social advocates who came together to create events and initiatives, including a scholarship in her name, to honor Angelou's contributions.
A Section on 10/19/2014