Oprah Winfrey Is Everyone's Friend(a)|脱口秀女王欧普拉

Oprah Winfrey Is Everyone's Friend

by Rebecca A. Fratzke

The story of one of the world's most influential women

From covering world issues to recommending books, Oprah Winfrey does it all. However, she was not always the icon the world loves and reveres today. She, like so many others, put in years of hard work to get herself to the top. Not even Winfrey herself could have predicted how successful she has become.

On January 29, 1954, Winfrey was born in a rural area in the state of Mississippi. Her actual birth name is Orpah, but because people didn't know how to pronounce it, she was always called Oprah. Her mother, Vernita Lee, was not married when Winfrey was born. Winfrey's grandmother helped raise her, but the family lived in poverty. Even so, thanks to her grandmother, Winfrey learned to read by the time she was three years old.

Winfrey moved to join her mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the age of six, but life in an inner-city neighborhood away from her supportive grandmother made growing up even more difficult for her. In 1962, due to financial reasons, Winfrey was sent to live temporarily with Vernon Winfrey in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years, she would believe this man was her father. When she returned to live with her mother, Winfrey started getting into trouble. At 14, she became pregnant and had a son that died shortly after birth. Unable to get along with her daughter, Lee sent Winfrey to live with Vernon again, this time for good. This situation seemed harsh, but it was a turning point in Winfrey's life and set her on her course to stardom. Vernon's strict yet supportive methods made Winfrey take herself and her education more seriously.

脱口秀女王欧普拉

欧普拉是全世界最具影响力的女性之一。

　　从报导世界议题到推荐书籍，欧普拉‧温芙蕾全都包办。然而，她并非一直是像现在这般受到全世界民众热爱与敬重的偶像。就如同许多人一样，她付出多年的努力让自己爬到顶端。就连她也没有预料到自己在以后会如此成功。

1954 年 1月 29 日，欧普拉出生于密西西比州的乡村。她真正的名字是欧帕，不过因为人们不晓得她的名字如何发音，所以她总是被叫成欧普拉。她的母亲弗妮塔．李未婚生下欧普拉。欧普拉的外婆帮忙抚养她长大，不过她们的家境非常贫困。即使如此，幸好有她的外婆，欧普拉在 3 岁的时候就开始学习阅读。

　　欧普拉 6 岁时搬到威斯康星州的密尔瓦基与母亲同住，但是远离支持她的外婆，生活在贫民区里让她的成长过程更加艰辛。1962 年，由于经济因素，欧普拉暂时被送到田纳西州的纳什维尔与裴浓．温芙蕾一起生活。有好多年时间，她一直相信这个人就是她的父亲。当她又搬回去与母亲同住时，她开始惹上麻烦。她 14 岁时怀孕，生下的儿子没多久就夭折。欧普拉的母亲跟自己的女儿处不好，又把她送去和裴浓同住，而这次便是永久了。情况看起来很艰难，但却是欧普拉生命的转折点，开启她迈向成名的道路。裴浓教育欧普拉的方式虽然严格，却也充满支持和鼓励，让她更认真看待自己与学业。