Before They Were Stars
HOT GALLERY: Happy Birthday, Oprah! Snakkle Celebrates the Daytime Legend’s 61st Birthday with a Look Back
Please welcome, MY BIRTHDAAAAYY! Or so might the Queen of Daytime greet the day on her 61st birthday on January 29, 2015. But not, of course, before reminding us to breathe and let go on our journey to being our best possible selves while reading The Secret. So grab your favorite organic cashmere throw—it’s time to celebrate with a look back at the early days of O. Happy birthday, Queen of our Favorite Things! By Katherine Butler
Seth Poppel/Yearbook Library
Oprah Winfrey, Freshman Year of High School (1968)
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to teenaged lovers Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. She spent her early life in Mississippi under the care of her grandmother Hattie Mae Lee, who spent much of her time putting books into her precocious granddaughter’s young hands. Young Oprah eventually moved to Wisconsin to live with her mother. Here we see the future daytime diva as a freshman at Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin.