Thrive: 30 Inspirational Rags-to-Riches Stories

Oprah Winfrey

Orpah "Oprah" Gail Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her mother, an unmarried teenager at the time of Oprah's birth, was a housemaid and her father was a coal miner turned barber turned city councilman. Oprah spent the first six years of her life in rural poverty with her maternal grandmother. Her family was so poor that Oprah wore dresses made of potato sacks, which the local children often teased her for. Her grandmother taught her how to read and write by age five, so Oprah quickly moved to the first grade.

From the age of nine, Oprah was molested by her cousin, uncle, and a family friend. At thirteen years old, after suffering years of abuse, Oprah ran away from home. When she was fourteen, she became pregnant, but her son was born prematurely and died shortly after birth. Oprah attended Lincoln High School, but after success in the Upward Bound program, she transferred to the affluent suburban Nicolet High School. There, her poverty was rubbed in her face as she rode the bus to school with fellow African-Americans, some of whom were servants of her classmates' families. To keep up with her free-spending peers, Oprah stole money from her mother and dated older boys. Her mother then sent Oprah to live with her father in Tennessee.

Despite her struggles at home, Oprah became an honors student, was voted Most Popular Girl, and joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, placing second in the nation for dramatic interpretation. At age seventeen, Oprah won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant. She also attracted the attention of the local African-American radio station, WVOL, which hired her to do the news part time. She worked there during her senior year of high school and during her first two years of college. She also won an oratory contest, which secured her a full scholarship toTennessee State University, where she majored in speech communication and performing arts.

After graduating from college, Oprah worked in local media as both the youngest news anchor and the first African-American female news anchor on Nashville's WLAC-TV. She later moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the six o'clock news. However, she was removed after only seven months because the producers thought she was too "dull" and "stiff." Instead of firing her, they had her co-host a failing early-morning talk show called People Are Talking. She also hosted the local version of Dialing for Dollars.

Oprah relocated to Chicago, Illinois to host WLS-TV's low-rated, half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago. Within months of taking over, the show went from last place in ratings to overtaking Donahue as the highest-rated talk show in Chicago. Movie critic Roger Egbert persuaded Oprah to sign a syndication deal with King World. The show was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to a full hour, and broadcasted nationally on September 8, 1986.

The Oprah Winfrey Show remained the number one talk show for twenty-four consecutive seasons and received forty-seven Emmy awards, until Oprah stopped submitting the show for consideration in 2000. She launched her own American television channel, The Oprah Winfrey Network, on January 1, 2011.