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Oprah Winfrey: Mississippi
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The biography of Oprah Winfrey is of the stuff that movies are made. Born January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, Oprah Winfrey was raised by her religious grand-mother who inspired the young girl’s broadcasting career by encouraging her to read aloud at their church. Since then, there has been no turning back for her.
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Winfrey's parents, who never married, were teens when she was born in rural Mississippi. She was originally named Orpah after a woman from the Book of Ruth but a spelling mistake on the birth certificate changed it to Oprah. She spent her childhood growing up in abject poverty on her deeply religious grandmother's farm. When she was older, Winfrey moved in with her mother in Milwaukee, WI. This proved a difficult time as Winfrey alleges she was repeatedly sexually molested by male relatives. Winfrey became a bit of a wild child during her early teens, experimenting with sex and drugs until the age of 14 when she gave birth to a premature baby. It died shortly after, and upon recovering, Winfrey chose to live with her father in Nashville.
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In 1986, Oprah started the Oprah Winfrey Show. The rest is, as they say, history. Oprah has come from being a poor, black, farm girl from Mississippi to a national celebrity. but it doesn't stop there. Oprah, it seems, is unstoppable.
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Born Orpah (after a character from the Bible) Winfrey on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi - USA, but now goes by the name of Oprah. At a young age Winfrey's parents separated and sent her to live with grandparents in very poor surroundings until the age of 6 when she moved to live with her mother. She was consequently se-xually mol-ested by male relatives at a young age and endured the hardship up until she was 14 when Winfrey moved to live with her father in Nashville Tennessee.
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For the first six years of her life, the young Winfrey was raised on a Mississippi farm by her grandmother. That being perhaps the first stroke of good luck for the young child. Oprah has stated that living with her grandmother probably saved her life. While in her grandmother's care, she was taught to read at a very early age, instilling a love of reading in her that she retains today. She began her public speaking career at the tender age of three when she began reading aloud and reciting sermons to the congregation of her church.
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In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Oprah asked her viewers to open their hearts—and they did. As of September 2006, donations to the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry total more than $11 million. Homes have been built in four states—Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama—before the one year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.[85] Winfrey ... matched her viewers' donations by personally giving $10 million to the cause.[86]
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