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OPRAH GAIL WINFREY
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 on a farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. Her parents originally planned to name her Orpah, but the midwife made a mistake on the birth certificate.
Up until the age of 6 Oprah lived with her grandmother. After this Oprah went to live with her mother and two half brothers in Milwaukee. Instead of living on a farm she now lived in the ghetto. While Oprah was living with her mother who gave her no supervision, she became out of control. Her mother Vernita could no longer handle her, so she was sent to Nashville to live with her father Vernon and his wife, Zelma.
Her father who was a barber became a city council member and was a strict disciplinarian. He demanded that Oprah add five new words to her vocabulary before she had her dinner each evening. Under these conditions Oprah became an excellent student. At the age of 16 she won an oratorical that guaranteed her a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee.
After graduating in 1976, Oprah was offered a job from the ABC affiliate in Baltimore. In 1984, Winfrey and her producer moved to Chicago to liven up an A.M. Chicago Show. In 1985, the show was renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show. In 1986, She formed a Production company called Harpo Inc. (The name Harpo is her first name spelled backwards.)
Oprah was not only a talk show host, she was an actress who played in various movies, which were: The Color Purple, Native Son, The Women Brewster and beloved
Oprah’s Angel Network
5 ways to be an Angel
This network started September 18, 1997. This program was designed to show you how you can improve your life and the world. Some important things that are involved in the Angel Network are:
1. Creating the World’s Largest Piggy Bank to raise money for needy students.
a. All money will go into one big scholarship fund that will send needy students to college.
Orpah Gail Winfrey, better known as Oprah Winfrey, was born on January 29, 1954 in the bustling city of Kosciusko, Mississippi. She was born into a complicated family, with her mother, Vernita Lee, being only 19 when Oprah was born and her father, Vernon Winfrey, making just
This essay I have decided to write about Oprah Winfrey. This is because Oprah had many serious life events. These life events must have implemented her key development stages or the other.
Oprah’s childhood was not the greatest. Her unmarried parents split up, and she grew up on a farm with her grandmother. She developed rapidly and could read before she was three. Also, she was tested out of kindergarten and second grade, thus only taking first grade and skipping to third grade. When she turned six, she started to live with her mother and was very lonely. However, she began her speaking profession around that time. “She was invited to recite poetry at black social clubs and church teas, where she became known as ‘the little speaker.’ At 12, during a visit to her father in Nashville, she earned $500 for a speech she delivered at a church” (“Winfrey, Oprah”). As you can tell, Oprah started young in her profession and was determined to make a living off of this since her prior experiences.
Oprah was born on January 29th, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi to her mother Vernita Lee, a single teenager who works as a maid, and her father Vernon Winfrey, a coal miner, barber, and city councilman. Her name was supposed to be pronounced as ‘Orpah’, from the bible, but because of the difficulty as the pronunciation, she was known as Oprah almost from her birth. Oprah’s parents were unmarried and soon separated after she was born, then left her in the care of
Mississippi Kosciusko, down deep in the south where she was born on January 29, 1954. Oprah Winfrey as a little girl was sexually abused by close family and also friends of the family. After words as she got older Oprah Winfrey went to Tennessee State University, in 1971 to go into working television and radio broadcasting in Nashville. Later on,
At Nashville, Tennessee, his father was almost the complete opposite of her mother (America's Beloved Best Friend). He was a disciplinarian, he would give Oprah a midnight curfew, and she would need to reed a book each week and write a report about the book (America's Beloved Best Friend).
Oprah has been known as “one of America’s top 50 most generous philanthropist” as she continues to contribute ten percent of her income ($385 million in 2008) to her favorite charities, related to education, youths, and literature. She had donated millions to Tennessee State University which is her alma mater as part of the scholarship funds, The United Negro Fund, to encourage young black Americans to pursue their dreams, and the Harold Washington Library, which is a program for economically disadvantaged Chicago-area young girls.
Oprah Winfrey is an inspiration to many all around the world. She did not have a very good home life up until the age of 14. She was abused as a child and did not see her mother very often because she was a housemaid who was gone almost every day all day. Vernon Winfrey, Oprah’s father, was a big service in her life when it came to keeping her in a nonviolent manner. Oprah also had her career going for her when she became Miss Black Tennessee at age 17. When Oprah became Miss Black Tennessee she was offered a radio broadcasting job and a full scholarship to Tennessee. Oprah had quite a few talk shows yet she made the most money off her own show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and now has her individual network called The Oprah Winfrey Network. Oprah Winfrey’s influential style greatly impacted those who came after her in the entertainment industry.
Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954. (“Oprah Winfrey Biography”). Oprah had a rough childhood (“Oprah Winfrey Biography”). She constantly moved from her mother’s house to her father’s house (“Oprah Winfrey Biography”). When Oprah lived with her mother she was raped (Lies, 2011). When Oprah lived with her father, she excelled (“Oprah Winfrey Biography”). Oprah’s rough childhood and thriving high school and college years definitely influenced her contributions to the world later showing ethical leadership (“Oprah Winfrey Biography”).
Oprah was born on a farm in 1954 to a poor family. Winfrey enjoyed reciting African American poetry, and became known as the "little speaker" in her town. When she was 12, Winfrey won $500 for a speech she gave at her father 's church. From then on she wanted to "be paid to talk." When Winfrey was a teenager, her dream was put on hold. Some of the trusted men of her family began to sexually abuse her. She lashed out in anger at the world by lying to her mother, running away from home, and stealing. Unaware of what Winfrey was going through, her mother sent her away to live with her father. If her mother never sent her away, Oprah 's life would have been much different. At age 17, Oprah Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant and was offered an on-air job at WVOL, a radio station for the African American community in Nashville. Oprah continued to work at WVOL in her first years of college, but her broadcasting career was already taking off. She left school and signed on with a local television station as a reporter and anchor. In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a co-anchor. There, she co-hosted her first talk show, People Are Talking, while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter. In January 1984, she was invited to Chicago to host a half-hour morning program on WLS-TV. In less than a year, she turned AM Chicago into the hottest show in
Although she has has a tough childhood from being pregnant as a teen, as well as losing her baby soon after he was born, Oprah did not let that stop her from being a well-known icon that changes the world as an independent woman. Source 2 states, “After a troubled adolescence… she moved to Nashville to live with her father…she entered Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and broadcast”. By this, Oprah did not want to let her past troubles get in the way of her education. Soon after, “Winfrey launched The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986… the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year” (Source 2).
Luckily, at the age of 14, she moved in with her father where she then went to college. Oprah had a dream of to be on TV, and when she graduated college she got her first job as a news anchor for a local TV station. From there she got a job as the host of a daytime talk show. The show had fallen on hard times but Oprah helped bring it back to the top of the charts. This led to Oprah creating her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the most-watched show on TV during its runtime.
Her father was very strict and cared a lot about school and wanted her to get high marks. At high school she was a brilliant student, she loved being in the drama club and the student council. After she graduated in 1971 she received a four year scholarship to Tennessee State University. She began to develop broadcasting career at seventeen while working for WVOL radio in Nashville. While still at university Oprah at nineteen became the youngest and the first African-American female news anchor at WTVF-TV in Nashville, this shows us today that you can conquer anything you put your mind to, I mean she went through such a hard childhood but yet still conquered this. In 1976 Oprah took the job to be a co-host on an early morning talk show called People are Talking. In 1984 Oprah moved to Chicago and got chosen to host a talk show called AM Chicago. The show became really popular during the time of seven months and was then extended to be a one-hour show. In September 1985 after all the show’s success it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was on TV for twenty five years. Oprah interviewed and engaged with her audience a lot and talked about her childhood on the show. Her show ended in 2011. After her show ended Oprah published the Oprah Magazine and then set up her own cable television network named Oxygen in 1999. Oprah started collecting funds for charities and children that couldn’t afford to go to school and then established the Family for Better Lives
When Oprah was left to live with her grandmother on the family farm she never wasted a minute of her childhood, and she was never bored. Her only friends in her early years were the farm animals that lived on the farm. This didn’t worry her any she gave them parts in plays that she would make up, included them in games she would play, and even included them in tea parties. Oprah’s grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee, would take Oprah to church every Sunday with her. This gave Oprah a chance to dress up in her best clothes and go to the Buffalo United
For most people growing up is filled with memories of joy and happiness. A childhood should be filled with affection and care, but Oprah did not always feel those things. Oprah did not have such a great upbringing, but despite the odds she rose up and became who she had wanted to be. Oprah had dealt with many accounts of sexual abuse, the lack of attention from her mother, and moving from place-to-place for most of her early years (Fry, web). Not only was Oprah faced sexual abuse, but she also became pregnant from one of the instances (Fry, web). This made things even more difficult for the young Oprah.