Oprah Winfrey is 56

PHOTO CREDITS: EB

Oprah is born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29 to unmarried teenage parents. Her mother, Vernita Lee, is a housemaid, and her father, Vernon Winfrey, a coal miner who later worked as a barber before becoming a city councilman. He is in the Armed Forces when she is born.

In 1967, she received a scholarship to attend Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin.

She later left Wisconsin and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father. In Tennessee, she joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, where she places second nationally in dramatic interpretation. She won an oratory contest, which secures her full scholarship to Tennessee State University where she studies Communication.

She won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant in 1971. Oprah celebrity status attracted the attention of WVOL, local black radio station. 

In 1992, Oprah was engaged to be married in November to partner Stedman Graham who she has been involved with since 1986, but the marriage never takes place.

Oprah's wealth crosses another milestone with a net worth of $340 million (approx. N51 billion), replacing Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400 list in 1995.

She begins the Oprah Angel’s Network in 1998; Oprah Angel’s Network a charity aimed at encouraging people to make a difference in the lives of the underprivileged, which to date has raised more than $51,000,000. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she asks her viewers to open their hearts-and they do; as of September, donations to the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry total more than $11 million.

She funds a $40 million school complex, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa in 2007.

In 2008, Oprah publicly endorses presidential candidate Barack Obama and holds a fund raiser for him at her Santa Barbara estate.

Forbes’ international rich list lists her as the world’s only black billionaire in 2004, 2005 and 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history, worth over $2.3 billion (approx. N345 billion), overtaking former EBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America.

Oprah Celebrates 56th Birthday with two 14-week-old springer spaniels named Sunny and Lauren. Happy 54th Birthday Oprah!

Source: 234next, WIKIPEDIA