Brooklyn, New York (April 9, 1929 – August 12, 2019) 90 yrs

Paule Marshall, born Valenza Pauline Burke professor, poet, novelist whose works explored Caribbean-American identity, heritage, and Black women’s experiences. Marshall gained acclaim with her debut Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959) and later novels like The Chosen Place, the Timeless People and Praise song for the Widow. In 1965, she and Langston Hughes accompanied a State Department-sponsored world tour, on which they both read their work, which was a boon to her career. In 1994, the New York Public Library designated her a Literary Lion. Marshall was inducted into the Celebrity Path at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 2001. Her memoir, Triangular Road, was published in 2009. 2010, she won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.