Oprah Winfrey Quotes
TV Host, Producer, Philanthropist
Oprah Winfrey was tv host, producer, philanthropist from the United States. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to an unwed teenage mother.
“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”— Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey, said in multiple speeches and interviews throughout her career. One of her most repeated lines, linked to her commencement address at Wellesley College and other public appearances.
The Story of Oprah
Kosciusko, Mississippi, 1954
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to an unwed teenage mother. Her first six years were spent in rural poverty with her grandmother Hattie Mae, who taught her to read before the age of three. At six she moved to her mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was repeatedly abused by male relatives. At fourteen she found her father Vernon in Nashville, who gave her the structure she needed.
Fired in Baltimore, 1977
At nineteen, Oprah became Nashville's first African American female TV news anchor. In 1976 she moved to WJZ-TV in Baltimore as co-anchor, but was demoted at twenty-two after management said she was too emotional for hard news. Shifted to the morning show People Are Talking in 1977, she said it felt 'like breathing.' Seven years later, in January 1984, she moved to Chicago to host the last-rated AM Chicago. Within months it was number one.
The Oprah Winfrey Show Goes National
Renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show in September 1985 and syndicated nationally in 1986, the program ran for twenty-five years until 2011 and earned Oprah nineteen Daytime Emmy Awards. In 1985, Quincy Jones cast her in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1996 she launched Oprah's Book Club, which made unknown authors into bestsellers overnight.
Billionaire, Medal of Freedom
Oprah became the first African American female billionaire and was, for a period, the only Black billionaire in the world. In 2007 she opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg, investing over forty million dollars. In 2011 she launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. In 2013 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. By 2007 she was ranked the most influential woman in the world.
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