Cicely Tyson was active until the end

The actress, who died Thursday at age 96, was promoting her new memoir, “Just As I Am.”

NEW YORK » Cicely Tyson was active to the end, in the middle of promoting her memoir “Just As I Am” when she died at age 96.

Published last week, “Just As I Am” was No. 1 on Amazon.com within hours of the groundbreaking actor’s death Thursday, displacing a bound edition of Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem “The Hill We Climb.” One of Tyson’s final tweets was a tribute to the 22-yearold poet.

“Your words remind us that we will rise, rebuild, reconcile and recover. Thank you for your words and light,” Tyson tweeted Wednesday.

Many media outlets had been celebrating Tyson and her memoir. “CBS This Morning” put online its week-old interview with Tyson, in which she was asked what she wanted the world to remember about her.

“I’ve done my best, that’s all,” she told Gayle King.

Tyson’s book became a parting gift to fans and chronicles a woman who went from selling shopping bags on the streets of Harlem to being cheered by presidents, winning Emmy and Tony awards and receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom..

In the days before her death, Tyson was also a guest on The Bakari Sellers Podcast, where she talked about her acting choices, injustices and her late husband, jazz great Miles Davis. She told Sellers that she wrote the book because everyone knew the glittery and successful version of herself but “no one knows Cicely Tyson, the person down here.”

Cicely Tyson with her award for best actress in a play for “The Trip to Bountiful,” in the press room at the 67th Annual Tony Awards on June 9, 2013, in New York.