HUSL Today Salutes

Before I begin this post I must acknowledge my reluctance to even publish such a post. For a few moments I wondered if I could even do Lady O justice with just one salute. After careful consideration, I decided to toss my fears aside and go for it. Hence, our salute to Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. After a troubled adolescence in a small farming community, where she was sexually abused by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother, Vernita, she moved to Nashville to live with her father, Vernon, a barber and businessman.

Her first job as a teenager was working at a local grocery store. At age 17, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant. She also attracted the attention of the local black radio station, WVOL, which hired her to do the news part-time. She worked there during her senior year of high school, and again while in her first two years of college.

She entered Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville. Working in local media, she was both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville's WLAC-TV. She moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV in 1976 to co-anchor the six o'clock news. She was then recruited to join Richard Sher as co-host of WJZ's local talk show People Are Talking, which premiered on August 14, 1978. She also hosted the local version of Dialing for Dollars there as well. After an eight year run, Winfrey relocated to Chicago and began hosting her own morning talk show A.M Chicago.

In 1985, Oprah delivered a compelling performance as Sophia in The Color Purple. Check out footage of her performance below:

Winfrey launched The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions ('Oprah' spelled backwards) and making more and more money from syndication.

In 1993, Winfrey hosted a rare prime-time interview with Michael Jackson, which became the fourth most watched event in American television history as well as the most watched interview ever, with an audience of one hundred million.

Winfrey is a dedicated activist for children's rights; in 1994, President Clinton signed a bill into law that Winfrey had proposed to Congress, creating a nationwide database of convicted child abusers. She founded the Family for Better Lives foundation and also contributes to her alma mater, Tennessee State University.

In 1993, Winfrey hosted a rare prime-time interview with Michael Jackson, which became the fourth most watched event in American television history as well as the most watched interview ever, with an audience of one hundred million.

Late in 1996, Winfrey introduced a new segment on her television show: Oprah's Book Club. The segment focused on new books and classics, and often brought obscure novels to popular attention. The book club became such a powerful force that whenever Winfrey introduced a new book as her book-club selection, it instantly became a best-seller (known as the Oprah Effect).

In October 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in the film Beloved, based upon Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. In that same year, Winfrey became the first woman and first African-American to top Entertainment Weekly's list of the 101 most powerful people in the entertainment industry. It is also the year when Winfrey began Oprah's Angel Network, a charity aimed at encouraging people around the world to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged others. Accordingly, Oprah's Angel Network supports charitable projects and provides grants to nonprofit organizations around the world that share this vision. To date, Oprah's Angel Network has raised more than $51,000,000. Winfrey personally covers all administrative costs associated with the charity, so 100% of all funds raised go to charity programs.

Winfrey published the first version issue of O, the Oprah magazine in 2000, O at home would follow a few years later.

In 2004, during the first episode of the nineteenth season of The Oprah Winfrey Show each member of the audience received a new G6 sedan; the 276 cars were donated by Pontiac.

In 2005, Harpo Productions released another film adaptation of a famous American novel, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). The made-for-television film Their Eyes Were Watching God was based upon a teleplay by Suzan-Lori Parks, and starred Halle Berry in the lead female role.

Forbes' international rich list has listed Winfrey as the world's only black billionaire in 2004, 2005, and 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in world history. According to Forbes, as of September 2009 Winfrey is worth over $2.3 billion and has overtaken former EBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America.

In 2007, Oprah gave 152 extraordinary low-income seventh-and-eighth graders a $40 million gift in the form of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for young girls. The school now enrolls about 300. The first senior graduation will be in 2011.

In case you missed it, below are the clips from the ABC special "Building a Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy":

Part 1


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

Watching the special changed my perspective on my education. It had a profound impact on my dedication and determination. Share your thoughts.

In July 2007 TV Guide reported that Winfrey was the highest paid TV entertainer in the United States during the past year. She earned an estimated $260 million during the year. This amount was more than 5 times what had been earned by the person in second place—music executive Simon Cowell, who had earned $45 million. By 2008, her income had increased to $275 million.

With a 2000 net worth of $800 million, Winfrey is believed to be the richest African American of the 20th century. To celebrate her status as a historical figure, Professor Juliet E.K. Walker of the University of Illinois created the course "History 298: Oprah Winfrey, the Tycoon."

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Oprah asked her viewers to open their hearts—and they did. As of September 2006, donations to the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry total more than $11 million. Homes have been built in four states—Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama—before the one year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Winfrey also matched her viewers' donations by personally giving $10 million to the cause.

Winfrey has also helped 250 African-American men continue or complete their education at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Winfrey was the recipient of the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Emmy Awards for services to television and film.

To celebrate two decades on national TV, and to thank her employees for their hard work, Winfrey took her staff and their families (1065 people in total) on vacation to Hawaii in the summer of 2006.

Her latest crusade is for everyone to sign her "no phone zone" pledge. You can learn more about it here.

Starting Monday March 1 @11am, Oprah will auction off 150 of her favorite things. You can find out more information here. All proceeds will benefit the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

Go ahead, use the comments area to share your favorite Oprah moments, endorsed products and quotes. Don't hesitate, you're amongst friends.

As one of the students in her leadership academy proclaimed, we are all individuals. Don’t try to blend in, BLEND OUT!

HUSL Today Salutes Oprah Winfrey!!!