According to Vibe and multiple reports Debbie Allen has announced that her mother, Dr. Vivian Ayers, has passed away.
The matriarch celebrated her 102nd birthday last month.
“Mommie, you have transformed into that cosmic bird Hawk that lives and breathes Freedom,” shared Allen in a heartwarming Instagram caption. The upload cycled through images of Ayers with family throughout the years in video format.
“We will follow your trail of golden dust and continue to climb higher. We promise ‘to be true, be beautiful, be Free’ Love Love Love Love Love,” continued Allen.
About Vivian
Born in 1923, in her lifetime, Ayers was a successful poet, playwright, and more.
She began her literary career in Houston, with the publication of Spice Of Dawns in 1952, according to the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture.
The work went on to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Ayers followed the release with Hawk in 1957 to wide acclaim.
As a 1939 graduate of the historic Brainerd Institute in Chester, Ayers attended Barber-Scotia College and Bennett College.
Ayers also received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from two HBCUs, Bennett College in North Carolina, and Wilberforce University in Ohio.
She also studied classical Greek at Rice University, Columbia University, and Princeton University. In addition, she has studied and translated texts on Mayan culture and astronomy, per The Gantt Center.
Vivian and the late Andrew Allen shared four children together: Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, and their two brothers, Hugh Allen and Andrew Arthur “Tex” Allen Jr. However, they divorced while their children were still young.
“It was my mother who taught us choral speech; it was my mother who taught us to tumble across the living room floor,” reflected Rashad to NPR in 2010. “It was my mother who gave us a real appreciation for art and literature as living things, not just as something hung on the wall or placed on the shelf — an appreciation for ideas and the power of thought and human intention. My mother gave us a lot — she gave us everything.”
Our sincerest condolences.
