The Public Viewing of Legendary Actress Cicely Tyson to Hold At Harlem Church
The world is still mourning the loss of Cicely Tyson and now the public will have a chance to pay its respects to the icon in her hometown of Harlem.
A public viewing will be held at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on Feb. 8. People will be able to pay their respects from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Masks and social distancing are required and photographs are not allowed.
On Jan. 28, it was reported that the legendary Cicely Tyson passed away at the age of 96. Her cause of death is not known.
In 1951, Tyson made her television acting debut on an NBC series called Frontiers of Faith. Her breakthrough role came in 1972, with her portrayal of sharecropping mother and wife Rebecca Morgan in Sounder. The role earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.
Tyson won three Emmys; two for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) and one for The Oldest Living Confederate Widow (1994). In 2013, Tyson conquered Broadway at 88 years old and won her first Tony Award for The Trip to Bountiful.
A new generation of Black Hollywood had the opportunity to work closely with Tyson in her final years. She was a scene stealer on the hit NBC show how to Get Away With Murder playing the mother to Viola Davis’ character for five years (2015-2020) and she co-starred in several Tyler Perry films, including the psychological Netflix thriller A Fall From Grace in early 2020.
That same year, Tyson played retired actress Miss Luma Lee Langston on Ava Duvernay’s OWN project Cherish the Day.
She received an Oscar in 2018, an honorary award for her lifetime’s body of work.
Tyson released her final work, a memoir, on just last week (Jan. 26), with Just As I Am. The book focuses on her life and the highlights of her career that spanned seven decades.