Oprah Gail Winfrey, [cq] who rose from Southern poverty and abuse to become the biggest television star of this generation, died yesterday when her jet crashed into the South Atlantic Ocean while she was en route to the school for girls she established in South Africa.
Having invested time and love, in addition to $40 million, founding the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg, she was making the trip to bring more supplies and other monetary gifts, according to her publicist Lisa Halliday [cq].
Gayle King [cq], a resident of Wilton, Connecticut, was Winfrey’s best friend. She said she was devastated upon hearing the news and believes the whole world will feel this loss. “She was a giver, and she gave until her last day on this earth,” King said, at a press conference held last night on the property of Oprah’s main home in Chicago, Illinois,“…her legacy is set in stone, and her life is an example of how greatness can be achieved by those given the least breaks in life. I am grateful to have known her for as long as I have.”
Ms. Winfrey’s long-term and live-in partner Stedman Graham [cq], from Whitesboro, New Jersey, said it’s important to remember how she lived, not how she died. “Let us not mourn her death, but celebrate her life. She would want it that way,” he said at the podium of the press conference.
She acquired the name for which she was best known -- Oprah -- because her family and friends could not properly pronounce Orpah, a Biblical figure in the Book of Ruth for whom she was named. She was a considerate, intelligent girl who learned to project the characteristics of the virtuous Ruth even more as she matured, relatives said.
“Ever since she could talk she was on stage,” Hattie Mae Lee [cq], from Kosciusko, Mississippi [cq], once said of her granddaughter. “She used to play games where she’d interview her dolls, the crows on the fence, and anything else.”
Ms. Winfrey credited her late grandmother for being the one who gave her a “positive sense” of herself. Lee knew the girl was destined to do something special, even as she was raising Oprah in rural poverty in Kosciusko [cq] and had to send her to school in dresses made from potato sacks.
Through the years, billions of people around the world were able to see in Oprah what her grandmother saw from the beginning.
With the first episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired nation-wide on September 8, 1986, Ms. Winfrey began her journey to establish herself among the white-male dominated talk-show world. She earned her start, after turning AM Chicago, a low rated, half-hour talk show, into the highest rated talk show in Chicago within a matter of months.
Oprah became a household name, overtaking and far surpassing talk-show competition, and continuing to launch the TV careers of the likes of Dr. Phil McGraw.
She had an unmatched gift for gab and showed viewers a sort of genuine empathy. People that went on her show would share things with her that they would not dream of telling anyone, and in turn, she would share things with them.
During an episode of her show in 1986, when the topic of sexual abuse was being discussed, Ms. Winfrey first revealed to the world that she had been abused as a child by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend. The abuse resulted in her becoming pregnant at age 14, but her son died of health complications a few weeks later in the hospital. In a 2004 episode, Winfrey said that she had a half-brother who died of AIDS years before, leaving her with no more biological relatives.
Winfrey caught the broadcasting bug during her senior year at East Nashville High School in Nashville, Tennessee. After being sent to live with her father, Vernon Winfrey, in Nashville, his strict demeanor led to Oprah becoming an honors student. She joined her high school speech team and won an oratory contest, which secured her a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she later received a degree in Communications. At the end of her senior year of high school, at age 17, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant and attracted the attention of WVOL, the local radio station. She was hired part-time to do the news and continued to work there through her first two years of college.
Oprah also became known for giving gifts to members of her audience, from books to household items to new cars. She became an Academy Award nominated actress for her part in Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg [cq], launched Oprah.com, published two popular magazines, and had a $55 million radio show contract with XM radio.
Overcoming many adversities, Ms. Winfrey rose to become, at one point, the richest person in the world, having achieved a net worth of over $2.7 billion. “She was not only rich in material goods, but in wisdom and character. She will always be remembered for sharing these things and much more,” said her agent Kevin Huvane [cq] at last night’s press conference. CNN and Time Magazine called Winfrey “the world’s most powerful woman.”
There will be a number of memorial services for Oprah in multiple countries. U.S. President Barack Obama issued a written statement this morning announcing that the Obama family will be holding their own service for Ms. Winfrey on March 27. The President also wrote that he felt he and Oprah had become friends during his campaigning period and he is “honored to be able to take part in celebrating the life of a woman who used her influence to effect positive changes around the globe.”
Ms. Winfrey’s funeral, open to close friends exclusively by invitation, will be held March 26th in Chicago. “Oprah’s last will and testament expressed that as she has no blood family left, she wanted to be buried in the place she felt most loved and at home in her life, here in Chicago,” Gayle King, who is in charge of the funeral arrangements, said. King did not wish to share the invitation list or the exact time of the funeral. “Those of us who loved her like family…need privacy to mourn,” said King.
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