The Life of Oprah Winfrey
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” In this quote, Oprah Winfrey means have friends who are positive and doesn't have a problem with motivating you. Oprah Winfrey’s accomplishments and success came from hard work and positive people who continued to push her forward. Winfrey was an important figure in American history because she was the first African-American woman to host an international tv show and made a way for others to be successful.
On January 29,1954, Oprah Winfrey was born to Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Winfrey lived with her mother and was sexually abused by older men (biography.com). When Winfrey was just 14 years old when she was pregnant and sent to live with her father but later the baby died. Winfrey was her father and
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stepmother's main priority when she moved in. Winfrey had to live under strict rules such as constant good grades, participate in church, and become a model student (Garson). While Oprah Winfrey was still in high school, she started broadcasting at WVOL radio station.
When Winfrey was just 19, Winfrey became the youngest and African American to appear on the news. Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland to be a co-anchor on the six o’clock news and became the host of their local talk show, “People Are Talking .” Oprah moved to Chicago, Illinois to host the morning talk show, “Am Chicago”, that made the number one talk show. Later, the show was called, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” (oprah.com).
Oprah Winfrey was awarded so many accomplishments throughout the years. In 1982, Oprah received her first Emmy Award for best talk show host and best show. Oprah accepted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Entertainer of the year award in 1989 with more awards added to her collection (buzzle.com). Each year, Oprah Winfrey uses her own earnings to invest in multiple charities. Winfrey owns three charities of her own by the name of The Angel Network, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, and The Oprah Winfrey Operating Foundation that donates money for young girls in South Africa
(Frazier). Throughout the years, Oprah helped millions of people to accept others who are not the same as themselves. Winfrey had a tremendous personality and multiple messages of positivity and improving themselves (Discovery.com). Later in the years, Oprah came out on her talk show about her sexual abuse when she was younger and living with her mother, this encouraged other celebrities to come out to the public about their similar problems that related to Oprahs and Tyler Perry was one of those celebrities.
As technology has developed over the years, society has become extremely reliant and addicted to the media. According to A.C. Nielsen Co., a global information and measurement firm, the average American youth watches twenty eight hours of television per week. Within a sixty-five year timeframe an individual will have spent a total of nine years watching TV (Herr). Both of these sects contribute millions of jobs providing individuals with ample opportunities, a gateway to success. It certainly provided the break for one African American woman to attain a status she could have only dreamt of as a child growing up in an unstable, emotionally debilitating, and unpromising environment. Oprah Winfrey is arguably one of the most influential women in modern times. She sprang up from seemingly nowhere becoming a media mogul, named most influential and wealthiest woman numerous years in a row by both Forbes and The Time. Oprah was brought to fame for her critically acclaimed talk show, which swiftly boosted her from rags to riches, and over the years resulted in her crowning as the “Queen of Talk.” Oprah Gail Winfrey, named the first African American female billionaire, was nominated for an academy award in her performance in The Color Purple, and through hard work and persistence forged her way into a position as CEO of her own television network and production company. Her self-entitled talk show, which would become the highest rated of its kind, served as a pioneer for many TV shows that emerged in the late 1980’s following the premiered of her show on daytime television. “I’m Oprah Winfrey, and welcome to the very first national Oprah Winfrey Show!” she exclaimed as the studio audience cheered enthusiastically (Brown). However, what pe...
Oprah Winfrey is as American entrepreneur and a popular talk show host. She was born on January 29 1954 in Kosciusko Mississippi. She was the result of a broken teenage relationship and teenage pregnancy so as you can imagine it had quite an impact on her development as she grew up. Against all odds she became a very successful woman and is currently worth 2.8 billion USD.
“In 1998 Oprah Winfrey was listed one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by the editors of Time magazine” (“Winfrey, Oprah”). Oprah Gail Winfrey was born to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey on January 29, 1954. Currently, Oprah is a successful chairwoman and CEO of The Oprah Winfrey Network: OWN since 2011.
Winfrey was born in rural Mississippi where her grandmother was so poor that she would sometimes dress Oprah in clothes made from potato sack and for that, she would get teased by her classmates. Grandma Lee was also rather strict as she would beat Oprah with a stick if she misbehaved or didn't sing the church hymns and choirs correctly. But despite being poverty stricken and strict, her grandmother was very encouraging and taught Oprah how to read the bible before the age of three.
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi living with a poor Baptist family (Wikipedia). Her parents, Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee were unmarried and still teenagers during the time she was born (Wikipedia). She lived with her grandmother where she would learn how to read aloud and recite sermons by the young age of 3 (America's Beloved Best Friend). At the age of 13 she would move to Milwaukee with her mother and that's when the trouble would start (America's Beloved Best Friend). She would face sexual abuse and molestation from her family relatives as a teenager, by her cousin, family friends, and her uncle (Victoria Walker). Oprah would keep this a secret and would bottle up her anger, which lead to trouble (Victoria Walker). She would repeatedly run away from home and was sent to juvenile detention, but her admission would be denied because the detention's overcrowded area (America's Beloved Best Friend). At the age of 14 she was impregnated by one of her abusers, but the baby would become stillborn, and this would devastate Oprah (Victoria Walker). Her mother would send her to live with her father as a last resort. She vowed to change her life (Victoria Walker).
In 2007, Oprah organized the Oprah Winfrey Foundation which supports the education and empowerment of women, children, and families in the United States and around the world. She then opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg in South Africa, helping young African American girls get an ed...
Oprah Winfrey lived a very rough early life until Vernon Winfrey took her into good hands. She lived in Kosciusko, Missippi for the first 6 years of her life, and then she moved to Milwaukee to live with her mother who was a housemaid. When Oprah lived with her mother she was sexually molested during the daytime when her mother would work the long days. This abuse went on everyday possible for 4 years until she was out on her own at age 14. Oprah had given birth to a baby, which had unexpectedly died during infancy. After the baby had died she moved in with her Father who lived in Tennessee. “Vernon Winfrey was a strict parent, but he gave his daughter the secure home that Oprah needed. He saw to it that she met a curfew, and he required her to read a book and write a book report as well. “As strict s he was,” says Oprah, “ he had some concerns about me making the best of my ...
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
Oprah Winfrey, who is born in January 29, 1954, is an American Tv broadcaster, with African origins. She lived with her mother and endured physical and mental abuse; she fled at 13, just to be dismissed from an adolescent imprisonment and sent to live with her cruel dad in Nashville (Kirkwood, 2013). This heroin lived her life and still experienced it with wide achievements and significant impacts on the global level. She brought great changes to various countries in the world. Oprah influenced many people who watched her shows by the great deeds she did and by listening to them and helping them. Accordingly, I have chosen her because she inspired me to follow her ideas and beliefs to reach the high standards she acquires today as a humanitarian individual.
She was born in rural Mississippi to her single teenage mother, Vernita Lee. She was raised by her grandmother for the first few years, then lived and raised by her mother in Milwaukee from age three to fourteen. Oprah’s mother taught her how to read at a very young age, making Oprah the smartest and most intelligent, young African-American girl in the neighborhood she grew up in. Oprah started encountering challenges as she grew older and prettier before reaching the age of ten. Before the age of ten, Oprah suffered a substantial amount of abuse, hardship, and molestation from close family members and acquaintances of her mother. Then, at the age of thirteen, she escaped home and was went to a juvenile detention home, only to be rejected admittance since all the beds were
Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29th, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi to a unmarried teenage mother. Her mom and dad are Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey, her father is a coal miner, turned into a barber, turned into a city councilman who had been in the armed forces when oprah was born. After Oprah was born, her mother traveled north and oprah spent her first 6 years living in rural poverty with her maternal grandmother. Oprah was so poor that
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
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.
Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her mother, Vernita Lee, gave birth to Oprah when she was only a teenager. Vernita was a maid. Oprah’s father is Vermon Winfrey he was a __________. Oprah’s mother left ________ to find a job while Oprah stayed with her grandmother named Hatti Mae Lee where she lived in poor conditions.