Born to an unwed teenage mother, Oprah Winfrey spent her first years on her grandmothers farm in Mississippi, while her mother looked for work in the North. Her grandmother taught her to read at the early age of three. At the age of six, her world changed for the worse, when she was sent to Milwaukee to live with her mother, who had found work as a housemaid. In the long days when her mother was absent from their inner city apartment, young Oprah was repeatedly molested by male relatives and another visitor. The abuse, which lasted from the ages of nine to 13, was emotionally devastating. When she tried to run away, she was sent to a juvenile detention home, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled. After giving birth to a baby boy who died in infancy, she went to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father. Vernon Winfrey was a strict disciplinarian, but he gave his daughter the secure home life she needed. In this structured environment, Oprah flourished, and became an honor student, winning prizes for oratory and dramatic recitation. At age 17, Oprah Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant and was offered an on-air job at WVOL, a radio station serving the African American community in Nashville. Fast forward to 2003, Forbes announced Oprah Winfrey as the first African-American woman to become a billionaire. Her talk show - The Oprah Winfrey Show remained as popular as ever, airing in 140 countries around the world. After 24 seasons and over 5,000 broadcasts, she announced her new network OWN on May 25, 2011. Today Oprah appears on every list of the worlds leading opinion-makers, and has been rightly called the most powerful woman in the world. #Real People #Inspirational Stories #YoungBizOwners
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:42:32 +0000
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