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Oprah Winfrey And Toni Morrison's Beloved

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Oprah Winfrey, the media mogul who was voted world’s most powerful woman and a tycoon of her OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) empire, died on Monday at a hospital in Santa Barbara. She was 82.
Lisa Halliday, Winfrey’s publicist, said the cause was complications from coronary bypass surgery.
She was the first woman in the history of broadcasting to own her own talk show and only the third woman to own her own studio. Her syndicated talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, reached 40 million viewers a week nationwide and was licensed internationally in 150 countries.
Roger King, executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show, called Winfrey “one-of-a-kind.” In discussing the renewal of the show into its 25th year, King praised Winfrey’s career saying, “she
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She was nominated for two Oscars, including “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” in 1985 for the film, The Color Purple. In conjunction with Harpo Films, Winfrey helped produce the adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, which was nominated for an Oscar.

Although she had become a household name, Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in 1954 to an unwed couple in Kosciusko, Mississippi, but she was raised by her grandmother as her young mother could not support her care. Life was difficult in Mississippi as Winfrey recalled in an interview with David Letterman stating she was beaten regularly.
Winfrey stayed with her grandmother until a rocky teenage pregnancy that led to the death of her baby. She been living with her mother in a halfway house where she was abused from the ages of 10-14 by a male relative. Her mother, desperate to have Winfrey leave the situation, sent her to live with her father whose strict rules and devout beliefs proved to be the foundation Winfrey needed to
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Her commitment to philanthropy included the Angel Network project and its $100,000 'Use Your Life Award,’ becoming a platform to recognize individuals who spend their life trying to better the lives of others. Before it stopped accepting donation, the Angel Network had raised more than $80 million for charitable causes.
In 2007, Oprah built the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, having handpicked 71 girls to be the first candidates of the all-girl school. She stated her aim was to provide high-achieving girls from backgrounds with poverty and personal trauma a chance at an outstanding education.
She is survived by her longtime partner, Stedman Graham, and one half-sister, Patricia Lofton, along with nieces and nephews from her siblings. She had no children of her own. She was preceded in death by her two half siblings, Patricia Lee Lloyd and Jeffrey
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