OPRAH WINFREY

Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29th, 1954, Oprah Gail Winfrey was born and raised in the family farm. Originally named Orpah, after one of the people in the Bible's Book of Ruth, the "r" and "p" were reversed due to problems spelling or pronouncing Orpah.
When she was born her father, Vernon Winfrey, was stationed as a soldier at a local base; and her mother, Vernita Lee was a house maid. Both were young at the time of Winfrey's birth and never married.

At a young age, Winfrey's parents split and she was raised by her grandmother, Hattie Mae, where she began her career by learning to read aloud and perform recitations.

From the age of 6 to 13, she lived in Milwaukee. After suffering abuse and molestation, she ran away and was sent to a juvenile detention home at the age of 13, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled.

When she was 14, her disgruntled mother sent her to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee Vernon was strict, but encouraging. Oprah remembers her father being very strict ,but today she loves him for it She had to read and do a book report each week, as well as memorize  five new words each day. If she hadn't done her tasks she would not be given any food. This had a massive impact on Oprah's life since ,everything he made sure she learnt is actually what has made her succeed

 Oprah says he had a big impact in her life. He always wished that Oprah would make the best of her life, and he wasn't ready to accept accept anything less than that.. 

  She began her media career at the age of 17, when she started to operate  at the local  radio station in Nashville while attending Tennessee State University, where she majored in Speech Communication and Performing Arts. Two years later, she became both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville.

In 1976, she decided to move  to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV news as a co-anchor, and in 1978 she realised she could  host talk shows , that is  when she became co-host of WJZ-TV's "People Are Talking", while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter.

Winfrey's career really began peaking after moving to Chicago in 1983 to host "AM Chicago", an early morning talk show at WLS-TV. The first episode aired on January 2, 1984.

 Within months after Winfrey took over, the show went from last place on the ratings to overtaking Donahue as the highest rated talk show in Chicago. It was renamed the Oprah Winfrey show, and it was  expanded to a full hour, and broadcast nationally beginning September 8, 1886, its first show about marrying the right person.

Winfrey is among the few Forbes 400 members whose wealth derives from their fame rather than the other way around. She is a ubiquitous media presence with her own television show and her own magazine, and each year the publishing industry produces at least one new biography to be snapped up by her adoring fans. This year Winfrey reaped favorable publicity when Jonathan Franzen, author of the acclaimed new novel The Corrections, expressed ambivalence about being honored by her middlebrow book club. The media heaped scorn upon Franzen for dissing Oprah, creating the rare spectacle of a person worth million being seen as an object of sympathy by middle class journalists. Now that's popularity.

SOURCES:
www.oprah.com/money/Women-Entrepreneurs_

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/645317/Oprah-Winfrey
.youngentrepreneur.com