'A Child of God Guided by His Hand:' Legendary Actress Cicely Tyson Reflected on Her Faith in Memoir Just Days Before Passing

Tributes are pouring in after the death of pioneering actress Cicely Tyson who broke color barriers in Hollywood. 

Tyson gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper's wife in the movie Sounder.

She won a Tony Award at 88 years old and touched the hearts of TV viewers in the "Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman." 

Tyson's death was announced Thursday by her manager who did not provide additional details. 

She was 96 years old and had just released her autobiography titled "Just as I Am." 

"Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word," Tyson writes according to Faithfully Magazine. "I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say."

Tyson said it was a "blessing" to have been raised in the Baptist and Episcopalian traditions.

"My mother was determined that our foundation be spiritual, just as hers had been," she wrote. 

The award-winning actress also wrote about dying saying, "I don't know when my day is coming. None of us does. Which is why, as soon as my lids slide open each morning, I say thank you. Thank you, Father, for the gift of another day. Thank you for just one more breath. Thank you for the sacred opportunity to live this life."

"The way I see it, God isn't finished with me. And when I've completed my job, he'll take me. Until then, I've got plenty to do," wrote Tyson.

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