Untitled Document
 Do
you know who Oprah Winfrey is? She is the queen of talk show. Her
show has been loved by so many people all over the world for 25 years.
Her world-famous talk show ended
on May 25 this year, but her name will be remembered forever. Recently, she got a road
in Chicago named after her! The road
has been named “Oprah Winfrey Way” by Chicago mayor Richard Daley.
“I’m very happy and honored to have a road named after me,” said Winfrey.
“Chicago is the home of my Harpo Studios, where my talk show has been
filmed for the past 25 years. Getting a
Road named after me in front of my Harpo Studios
is better than receiving an Oscar or Emmy!”
Born in 1954 in Mississippi to an unwed teenage mother, Winfrey’s
childhood was not very happy.
She lived on her grandmother’s farm because her mother was
working in another city to earn money. Little Oprah
was a gifted child and she learned
how to read at an early age from her
grandmother. She enjoyed her grandmother’s love and support.
 However,
her life changed at the age of six when she was send to Milwaukee to live with her
mother. Her mother worked as a housemaid during the day
and was not at home, and the young girl was repeatedly abused by her
uncles for many years. Her
mother couldn’t protect her and she finally ran away from home
at the age 14. Then, she went to Tennessee to live with her
father, Vernon Winfrey.
Her father was very strict, but he took good
care of her. He made her read a book and write a book report each week. In
the secure environment, Oprah flourished and she became
a good student, winning prizes at school. She even won the Miss Black
Tennessee beauty pageant when she was
17 and got a chance to work at a radio station.
 Later, she entered Tennessee
State University and won a full scholarship. She majored in Speech Communications and Performing
Arts at the university. However, she left school and signed
on with a local television station
as a reporter and anchor. In 1984, she was
invited to Chicago to host a half-hour morning
program. The next year, it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and
soon it gained huge popularity and became the number one talk show
in the U.S. Now the poor black girl from the countryside is one of the richest people in the
world!
“I love Chicago. This city turned a little black girl from Mississippi
into something big. It is really just a miracle to have my name on
a street in the greatest city in the world,” she said. “Chicago is
my real hometown and dreamland.” |
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