Toni Morrison to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

By: Lynette Holloway | Posted: April 28, 2012 at 3:03 PM

Kris Connor/Getty Images

Award-winning novelist Toni Morrison is among 13 people slated to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at a White House ceremony in late spring, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:

Other recipients will include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, songwriter and musician Bob Dylan, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the late Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low and NCAA women's basketball coach Pat Summitt.

"These extraordinary honorees come from different backgrounds and different walks of life, but each of them has made a lasting contribution to the life of our nation," Obama's announcement said…

Morrison, 81, the author of works including "Song of Solomon," "Jazz," and "Beloved," has won both the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. She worked for Random House publishing and taught at universities including Princeton and Yale.

Read more at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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