She was born in
Wynberg, Cape Town, South Africa, to Henry Bowman-Pegram and Evelyn Minnie West on 3 October, but there was a discrepancy as to the year of her birth. Pegram explained: "I was born in the spring time, and that's why my name is Blossom. Spring time in South Africa is October....I have two birth certificates, and that sounds kind of crazy, but one says '38, the other one says '35....It came about through record keeping in South Africa." After graduating in 1961 from the
University of Cape Town later acting on stage, television, radio and in film. In 1972, she moved to the United States, living and teaching in
Fort Knox, and she earned a master's degree from the
University of Louisville in 1977, writing her dissertation her dissertation on
Dennis Brutus. ==Honours==