- Born into poverty in Kosciusko, Oprah Winfrey managed to climb from her rural Mississippi roots to scale unimaginable heights.
Few people in the world are well-known by their first name. Madonna. Cher. Elvis. Beyonce.
And then there’s Oprah.
Born into poverty in Kosciusko, Oprah Winfrey managed to climb from her rural Mississippi roots to scale unimaginable heights throughout her remarkable career in broadcasting and beyond.
The media mogul now has an estimated net worth of $3 billion, according to a recent article in Forbes magazine. Her charismatic personality combined with her astute acumen in business reflects a personal wealth across various platforms. She is truly one of the richest personalities in today’s entertainment industry.
Her life may have started out on a rocky road, but Oprah managed to navigate obstacles in a way that benefitted her career.
Early Years
Winfrey was born on Janaury 29, 1954. Her mother, Vernita Lee, was 18 and unmarried. When Vernita moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to find work, she left young Oprah with her mother, Hattie Mae Lee, on a farm outside Kosciusko. Hattie Mae encouraged Oprah’s love of books, teaching the young girl to read by the time she was three. By the age of five, Oprah was reading the Bible and speaking at her grandmother’s church.
When Oprah was six years old, her grandmother became ill, so Oprah was sent to live with her mother and half-sister, Patricia, in a boarding house in the inner city in Milwaukee. Vernita cleaned houses and often relied on welfare to feed her girls.
After living for a year in Milwaukee, Oprah’s life was uprooted once again, and she was sent to live with her father, Vernon Winfrey, and his wife, Zelma in Nashville. The couple couldn’t have children of their own, so they were happy to have the precocious seven-year-old in their home. It was there that Oprah was able to experience having her own bedroom, and her parents continued the work started by Oprah’s grandmother, taking the young girl to the library and encouraging her education.
Vernon took Oprah back to Milwaukee to spend the summer her mother and her new son, Jeffery, after she finished the third grade. In the fall, Oprah wanted to stay with her mother and begin fourth grade in Milwaukee. She often babysat her step-brother, and spent time in front of the television, dreaming of becoming famous.
At the age of 14, Oprah moved back to Nashville after becoming pregnant due to rape by her cousin. She tried to hide her pregnancy from her father, but she went into labor in her seventh month. The baby, a boy, died two weeks later.
Her life got back on track when she was 16, something Oprah credits author Maya Angelou. She read Angelou’s book, When the Caged Bird Sings, over and over, saying later it validated her life.
Oprah concentrated on her studies and began working on public speaking seriously. She learned that talent could take her places, beginning when she won first prize a speaking competition at the local Elk’s Club in 1970. That opened doors she could never have imagined – she won a four year college scholarship.
The next few years helped determine the course of Oprah’s future. She went to Colorado as one of two representatives from Tennessee for the 1971 White House Conference on Youth. When she returned to Nashville, she was interviewed on WVOL radio about her experience. She was so enthusiastic that the station management asked her to represent the station in the Miss Fire Prevention Pageant, which she won.
Her first journalism experience came at the same radio station , where she was offered a part-time position reading the news. She was just 17 years old.
Oprah went on to study communication at Tennessee State University, and at age 18, she was crowned Miss Black Tennessee.
Television Career
Oprah began her television career in 1976 at Baltimore’s WJZ-TV as a news co-anchor. She held other on-air positions at the station for a few years before moving to Chicago in 1984 to host AM Chicago, a low-rated half-hour morning talk show. Within a few months the show was outperforming Phil Donahue’s popular show. Roger Ebert, who was the movie critic on the syndicated show At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, convinced Oprah to syndicate her talk show. The rest is history.
Oprah signed a syndication deal with King World Entertainment, one of the oldest and largest television syndication companies in the country.
The Oprah Winfrey Show became a hit in each market where it was broadcast. As a host, Oprah was dynamic and personable. As an interviewer she was curious and empathetic. As much a therapy session as an interview, Oprah had the ability to gain a guest’s trust, and in turn, the guests often revealed things they would never tell anyone else, much less in front of television cameras. Oprah also had the uncanny ability to make even the strongest personalities break down in tears, and that always makes for good TV.
The show ranged from tabloid topics to headier subjects including health issues, politics, and religion. She made regular guests like Dr. Oz, Rachel Ray, and Dr. Phil household names, with spin-off shows of their own.
Oprah stepped out of her role as host and into the role of actor in 1989 on television’s short-lived series The Women of Brewster Place. She launched her television network, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network in January 2011, and wrapped the series finale of The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 25 the same year.
Film Career
Oprah was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of distraught housewife Sophia in The Color Purple (1985), directed by Steven Spielberg. She produced and starred in Beloved (1998), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison.
Her production company, Harpo Productions (Harpo is Oprah spelled backwards), released a film adaptation of a 1937 novel by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005).
Oprah starred in The Butler in 2013, and voiced Gussie the goose in Charlotte’s Web (2006). She also did the voice of Judge Bumbleton in Bee Movie (2007) and Eudora in The Princess and the Frog (2010).
She was on camera again in the role of Mrs. Which in A Wrinkle in Time (2018), the film adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel by the same name.
Writing and Publishing
In the early 2000s Oprah launch O Magazine, which ceased publication in December 2020. For a few years she also published O at Home.
Oprah has written and co-authored several books, including the popular weight-loss book co-authored with her personal trainer, Bob Greene. Oprah’s Book Club selections are read by millions of readers around the world.
Her website, Oprah.com, is similar to her magazine, but on steroids. The site offers access to OWN programming, along with podcasts and newsletters. The Oprah’s Book Club selections are listed, and there are articles on topics including inspiration, food, home, and fashion.
Personal Life
At 70 years old, Oprah shows no signs of slowing down. Instead, she is busier than ever.
She has been with her partner, Steadman Graham, since 1986. The couple got engaged in 1992, but decided not to marry, saying their relationship is very non-traditional.
Philanthropy is important to Oprah, who abides by the “to whom much is given much is expected” philosophy. Places in Mississippi have benefitted from some of her philanthropy. I met her in early 1999 at a small reception in the home of Dr. Charles Beady, president of Piney Woods School in Rankin County. Oprah was a benefactor of that school for a few years before she opened a school for girls in Africa. She was in the state for a “homecoming” celebration in Kosciusko, and she wanted to visit Piney Woods to see where her money was going.
Over the years, her “Oprah’s Favorite Things” lists have made a huge difference for many of the companies featured, including Musee Bath Bombs, made in Canton, Mississippi, which made the list three years in a row. And from time to time, her television show audiences were gifted with products they never imagined. (Who can forget, “YOU get a car! And YOU get a car!”)
Oprah has an extensive real estate portfolio, estimated to be around $127 million. Her most recent purchase was 870 acres of land in Maui last year for a reported $6.6 million. Not bad from a kid born in rural Attala County, Mississippi.
