I chose Oprah Winfrey because somebody else took the one I wanted, and because I knew there would be enough information on her. Also because she has her own talk show and I wanted to find out how she started in that type of thing.


Fact in Brief Name: Oprah Gail Winfrey
Date of Birth: January 29, 1954
Education: Tennessee State University
Parents: Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on the family farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her dad, Vernon Winfrey, who was stationed as a soldier at a local base; and her mother, Vernita Lee, were both young at the time of Oprah's birth. Her parents never married. Shortly after she was born her mother found a job, as a maid, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Oprah was left in the care of her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee.

As a child Oprah never wasted a minute of her young imaginative mind on something that seemed to be boring. Through her early years her only friends were the farm animals. She gave them parts in the plays she made and included them in games.

There were plenty of opportunities for her to display her talents. Her abilities to read, speak, and memorize were unbelievable. Her first speaking part was during an Easter Program. At Christmas time she was in the program again. She was only three years old!

Having suffered abuse and molestation, Oprah, a runaway teenager in search of herself, was sent to a juvenile detention home at the age of 13, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled. As a last resort, she was sent to Nashville to live with her father.

At age fourteen, Oprah gave birth to a premature baby that later died.

At age nineteen, Oprah got her first broadcasting job at WVOL in Nashville.

In 1972, Oprah became the first black to anchor at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She moved to Baltimore in 1976. After being co-anchor at WJZ-TV for two years, she was hired to host the station's chat show, “People Are Talking.”

In 1984, she moved to Chicago and took over the morning show “A.M. Chicago.” By September of the next year, the show was so successful that it was expanded to an hour and renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

She was introduced into the Television Hall of Fame in 1994, and has won many awards.

Oprah Winfrey is the first women in history to own and produce her own talk show!!

I think Oprah has a major impact on people today, after all she is the first women in history to have her own talk show. She has had quite the life experience, from my point of view!