Summary of “Beating the Odds”
Oprah was born in Deep South in 1954. Since she was a child, she remained in the South under the care of her grandmother. From the beginning, her grandmother stressed the importance of education to young Oprah. Despite all the hardships of her childhood, she fused education, ambition and talent into a vehicle for success as she rose from a disadvantaged youth to become one of the most successful women in
America.
In 1960, at age six, things changed dramatically for Oprah. She moved from
South to North with her mother, her mother's boyfriend and a younger child that came out of that relationship. Unfortunately, she maintained that several male family members abused her. About this time, desegregation had begun at schools across the nation. Two years later, Oprah's mother found herself unable to give Oprah the care.
She called Vernon Winery who is the man to be Oprah's father. Vernon agreed to take her back into his house, where his strict discipline quickly set his daughter back on a path that helped her become a superstar.