Michelle Obama and Oprah Set to Speak at Maya Angelou’s Memorial Service

Maya Angelou’s family is holding a private memorial service for the late great literary icon on Saturday at Wake Forest University, where Angelou served as a professor from 1982 until her death.

Her friend and mentee, Oprah Winfrey, spoke to Entertainment Tonight about her relationship with Angelou and revealed that she will definitely be speaking at the private service. Along with Winfrey, first lady Michelle Obama is also scheduled to speak at the event.

The Obamas have been very vocal about their admiration and respect for Angelou and her work, with the president awarding her the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in 2011 and releasing a statement following her death that honored her legacy and revealed that his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, was named after Angelou.

While Saturday’s service at Wake Forest is private, the university is live streaming the event on its site at http://new.livestream.com/wfu/angelou, and OWN plans to broadcast the service on their network in addition to showing encore episodes that feature Angelou throughout the day.