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| | Oprah Gail Winfrey (born on January 29, 1954) is a popular American actress & host of talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. Magazine Forbes called her most influential celebrity and ninth influential woman in 2005 and first influential woman in 2007. Net worth of Oprah is approximately estimated at $2.7 billion dollars, more than any other woman in show business.
Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in a Baptist family. Birth name was Orpah Gail Winfrey, given to her after the biblical character, Orpah, sister of Rufi. Conflicting information exist about how she became Oprah. According to the statement of Winfrey herself, her family & friends could not utter “Orpah”& thus the places of letters were interchanged & the same was done in the birth certificate. However, an opinion exists that the letters were messed-up by the midwife, filling the documents of newborn. Her parents were unmarried. Her mother – Vernita Lee was a housemaid and father - Vernon Winfrey was a miner, then a hairdresser & subsequently became a member of municipal council. When Oprah was born, her father was in army. After birth of Oprah, her mother relocated to north & Oprah spent her first six years of life in rural poverty, living with grandmother – Hattie Mae. Grandmother taught Oprah to read, when Oprah was not even three years old, her grandmother took her to local church, where she was nicknamed “The Preacher” for her ability to recite verses from Bible. When Oprah was a child, grandmother quite often beat her with a switch when Oprah didn’t help in domestic chores or misbehaved. At the age of 6, Oprah moved to old ghetto of city Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her mother, who was less supportive & encouraging. Oprah recounts that at the age of 9 years, she was molested by cousins, uncle and their friends. Despite her dysfunctional home life, Oprah was educated enough to attend the school in suburb of Milwaukee at the age of 13 years. Even though Oprah was popular enough, she could not come to the city as frequently as her rich schoolmates could. But, as many teenagers in the late sixties, Oprah revolted & escaped from the house onto the streets. When she was 14, she became pregnant and gave birth to a male child, who died soon after the birth. Then, her upset mother sent Oprah to live in Nashville, Tennessee with father. Vernon was strict but encouraging and made her education a priority. Oprah was one of the honors students and was voted “Most Popular Girl”. She won oratory contest, which allowed her to become student of Tennessee State University, historically university for blacks, where she studied communication. At the age of 18, Oprah won “Miss Black Tennessee” in the dramatized beauty pageant. Grandmother of Oprah recounted that ever since Oprah started talking, she was always on stage. In childhood, she interviewed the corncob dolls and crows on the fence. When Oprah was 17 years old, she worked and also studied in the university. She was the youngest reporter working in local media and the first black news-anchor at Nashville’s TV. In 1976, she joined Baltimore’s WJZ-TV to co-anchor six o’clock news & started to become a local celebrity.
Property:
At present, Oprah Winfrey lives in “The Promised Land”, on a 42 acre land with ocean & mountain views in Montecito, California, not far from Santa Barbara. According to some rumors, Winfrey liked this site, which was abandoned by former owners, she, as reported, bought it for 50 million dollars issuing a cheque even though the site was not for sale. Oprah Winfrey also has a house in Lavallette, New Jersey, apartment in Chicago, estate on island near Miami, ski house in Telluride, Colorado and property on Hawaiian island Maui. Winfrey operates the show from Chicago. Thus, she spends main time in the neighborhood of Streeterville & rest of the time she lives in California. |
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Oprah Winfrey is celebrating her 55th birthday this Thursday. Time magazine and CNN named her the most influential American woman. Every Oprah show is watched by millions of American and international viewers. It is estimated that due to her strong support of Barack Obama, Oprah brought him the victory in the Democratic primaries tight race against Hillary Clinton, delivering over 1 million votes for Obama. Winfrey was born to a single mother who originally named her "Orpah" after the Biblical character in the Book of Ruth.
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