Oprah: A Biography BY KITTY KELLEY, ALLEN & UNWIN, $35.
By the age of 19, the illegitimate girl, born to a teen single mum in the segregated Southern state of Mississippi in the ’50s, had already conquered mountains as Nashville’s first black woman TV news reporter.
She was raised for her first six years by her grandmother and endured childhood sexual molestation, giving birth at 14 to a boy, who died a month later. Yet Oprah Gail Winfrey had a dream.
Kitty Kelley interviewed 850 people for this much-hyped 500 page-plus biography and snared both Vernon Winfrey, Oprah’s non-biological father, and cousin “Aunt Katharine”, but not surprisingly, had no access to fiance Stedman Graham, best friend Gayle King or mother Vernita Lee. Blindsided by the confidentiality contracts that everyone who works for Oprah must sign, Kitty relies on barely eyebrow-raising anecdotes – as a young reporter, Oprah pronounced blasé “blaze” – and what actually ends up shining through is Oprah’s unparalleled ability to “come back” from criticism and constantly redirect her ambition.
As the runner-up 1972 Miss Black Nashville, Patrice Patton, (Oprah won, but a switched-vote story bubbles underneath) tells Kitty, “I still remember how determined she [Oprah] was to get into shape … she was the first black person I ever saw eat yogurt … ”
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