The little girl who could

The date was January 29, 1954. The black baby girl was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her parents were unmarried. They were teenagers and both attribute the birth to a one-time encounter. The baby was left with her grandmother for the first six years of life. Grandmother was a tough disciplinarian and would use a switch on her if the chores weren‘t done or if she misbehaved in any way. They were so poor the child often wore dresses made from potato sacks. Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and she could recite bible versus so well the church people nicknamed her “preacher”. Her mother had moved to Milwaukee and found a job as a maid. At age six, the child went to live with her mother but her mother wasn’t as attentive as her grandmother was. At age 9, she was raped and by 14, she had a son who died in infancy. Her father had become a barber in Tennessee and she was sent to live with him after her baby son died. She landed a job in radio while in high school and by age 19 she was co-anchor of the local evening news. Her father was strict and made her education a priority. She won an oratory contest while attending East Nashville High School. With that win, she also received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University where she studied communications. I’m sure you have guessed her name by now but you may not know the name you know her by is not her real name. She was named after a biblical character in the book of Ruth. Her real name is Orpah Gail Winfrey. We know her as Oprah. The Oprah Winfrey show has earned her multiple Emmy awards and is the highest-rated talk show in the history of television. She is also an influential book critic, an Academy award nominated actress, and a magazine publisher. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the most philanthropic African American of all time, and was once the world's only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world. During a lawsuit against Winfrey, she hired Dr. Phil McGraw's company Courtroom Sciences, Inc. to help her analyze and read the jury. Dr. Phil made such an impression on Winfrey that she invited him to appear on her show. He accepted the invitation and was a resounding success. McGraw appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for several years before launching his own show, Dr Phil, in 2002, which was created by Winfrey's production company, HARPO productions, in partnership with CBS Paramount, which produced the show. Some even say our current President would not have won without her support. Not to shabby for a dirt-poor black woman from Mississippi who seemed to have the deck stacked against her huh?