Who was Vivian Ayers Allen? Debbie Allen’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet mom dies at 102

Vivian Ayers Allen, the mother of Hollywood stars Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad, passed away in Los Angeles, California, on August 18, 2025, aged 102. The official cause of death remains undisclosed as of writing. Allen was a Pulitzer Prize-nominated American poet, playwright, cultural activist, museum curator, classicist, and former NASA consultant.

Debbie shared the news on her Instagram account on Thursday. The post was captioned,

“Mommie, you have transformed into that cosmic bird Hawk that lives and breathes Freedom. 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 [multiple red-heart emojis.”

It came alongside a reel featuring moments from Vivian Ayers Allen’s life titled, “In Eternal Light, Vivian Ayers”. At the end of the clip, the words, “We Love You, Ma Turk,” appeared on the screen.

The post by The Grey’s Anatomy actress shared a list of family members left behind by the deceased, including herself, Norman, Lish, Tex, Hugh, Vivi, Thump, Condola, Billy, Oliver, Gel, Tracey, Carmen, Shiloh, Aviah, Eillie, Gia, and “all the Turks in our family”.

Vivian Ayers Allen’s demise came less than a month after she celebrated her 102nd birthday on July 30, 2025.

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All you need to know about Vivian Ayers Allen

Vivian Ayers Allen was born in 1923 in Chester, South Carolina, and was raised alongside a sister. She attended the historical Brainerd Institute in her hometown and graduated in 1939. Vivian received her college education from Barber-Scotia College and Bennett College before earning honorary doctorates from Wilberforce University in the 1990s and Bennett College in 2006.

Allen was married to New York-based dentist and army veteran Andrew Arthur Allen Sr. for nearly a decade, and they got divorced in 1954. He died of diabetes in 1984, aged 63. The couple had four children, including Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, jazz musician Andrew Arthur ‘Tex’ Allen Jr., and TD Bank regional president Hugh Allen.

Vivian Allen Ayers is best known for her 1957 poem, Hawk, which was a pioneering piece of literature, as it was set in outer space in the year 2052. It was published 11 weeks before the launch of Sputnik I and was lauded by NASA. She was also honored for her contributions regarding the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

Last year in July, on the eve of the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11, NASA honored her and other women associated with the mission by renaming Building 12 at the Johnson Space Center “Dorothy Vaughan Center in Honor of Women of Apollo”. In 2023, Debbie Allen told Ebony,

“Mom was a mathematician. She was one of those Hidden Figures women working at NASA; her poetry is written in stone at NASA”.

Meanwhile, Phylicia Rashad spoke to NPR in 2010 and stated:

“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."

Vivian’s poem, Hawk, is now displayed at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It was later republished by her daughters, Debbie and Phylicia, in 2023, via Clemson University Press.

The poem collection, Spice of Dawns (1952), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Later, Allen also collaborated with notable American author Langston Hughes and founded a literary magazine called The Adept Quarterly.

Vivian Ayers also wrote a few plays, including Bow Boly and The Marriage Ceremony. She was also a librarian at Rice University in Houston, where she studied classical Greek. Having spent over four decades in Texas, Allen briefly relocated to Mexico to experience a change of scene in her personal life and career. There, she studied Mayan culture and astronomy.

In the mid-1980s, she moved to New York, where she established the ADEPT New American Museum of the Southwest. Vivian Ayers Allen also acted in Jimmie Durham’s production of My Land with Muhammad Ali.

The late poet also founded a nonprofit grassroots art program called “Workshops in Open Fields” in 1973, in collaboration with the Harris County Community Association and a group of certified educators. Subsequently, Vivian Ayers Allen served as the advisor to The Associated Councils of the Arts.

Dr. Allen received several honors during her lifetime, such as the Medal of Honor from Winthrop University, and other awards from the Jack & Jill of America Foundation and the National Council of N*gro Women.

She was also the founding director of the Brainerd Institute Heritage in Chester, South Carolina, where Vivian Ayers Allen spent her later years until she was 95. The institution also marked her centenary birthday with a gala in July 2023.

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During a 2023 interview with Ebony, Debbie called her mother “incredible” and lauded her “mental capacity,” which led her to her “golden age of 100”.

Lately, Vivian Ayers Allen had been staying near her children in Los Angeles due to her old age, where she died.