Oprah Winfrey pays tribute to Maya Angelou on what would have been the iconic poet’s 95th birthday

Oprah Winfrey remembered her late friend Maya Angelou, on what would have been the iconic poet and civil rights activist’s 95th birthday on Tuesday.

“Maya would have turned 95 today – and I would throw a BIG party for her as I did every 5th year since she turned 60,” said Winfrey, 69, in a caption alongside a photo of the couple together.

The media icon shared how Angelou was an important role model when she was younger, and mentor when they eventually met.

“I grew up reading her enlightening books and memorizing her poems,” said Winfrey.

She continued, “When I finally met her in my late twenties, she made me a meal and read me Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry.”

Winfrey said she was “sitting from then on.” [Angelou’s] table and listened to her words of wisdom for years.’

They include quotes such as: ‘When people tell you who they are, believe them – the FIRST time;’ ‘If you know better, you do better;’ and ‘When you learn, teach. If you get, give.’

Winfrey said Angelou gave her “a wealth of other wisdom” that she has kept in her heart in the years since her passing.

“I appreciate those gifts to me even more now that she’s gone,” Winfrey said. “But more importantly, I still feel her everywhere.

In the silence, in conversation, at sunrises and sunsets, her Spirit remains with me and greets me as she always did: “Hello, dear girl.”

Angelou, who published her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969, died on May 28, 2014 at the age of 86.

Angelou was a speaker at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993, and he awarded her the Presidential Medal of the Arts in 2000.

In 2011, she received the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.