Aww Shucks Oprah

(Macon, GA) Oprah is in town. And she is causing quite a stir. THE Oprah. The Academy Award nominated actress and the star of the Oprah Winfrey show which happens to be the highest ranked talk show in television history. This afternoon when I left the office I drove downtown past the Macon City Auditorium where her show will be taped tomorrow. As you can see Oprah is serious about recording her show here tomorrow.

Oprah has been ranked the richest African American in the 20th century and the most philanthropic African American of all time. For the record she is worth a cool $2.5 Billion.


She actually got here Thursday afternoon and showed up unannounced to eat at a restaurant on the outskirts of town called the “Fish N’ Pig.” The folks eating there had the shock of their life. She spent today with her entourage visiting some of the sights in Macon and shopping at some of the local Macon shops. She even purchased a few pairs of shoes, a few handbags and I’m sure whatever else she wanted. She has been drawing a crowd everywhere she has been.

Some people I’ve talked to don’t understand what all the hoopla is about. Maybe they don’t understand that Oprah is most likely the most influential woman in the world.

Just in case you don’t know, Oprah was born (the same year I was born) in a little town called Kosciusko Mississippi to a 14 year old unwed mother. Kosciusko is in rural Mississippi, about as far from Jackson as Macon is from Atlanta. She was raped at the age of 9 and at the age of 14 gave birth to a son who died as an infant. She moved from Mississippi to a ghetto of Milwaukee and eventually moved to Nashville. At the age of 19, she was co-anchoring the evening news in Nashville. She moved from there to a daytime talk show and then to Chicago and the rest is history.


When the child Oprah was delivering that baby I wonder how many people thought she would end up being the most influential woman in the world and worth $2.5 Billion. You talk about a rag to riches story. Oprah’s story is certainly that.

The show will be taped tomorrow and is the toughest ticket in town. Although the auditorium will hold a couple thousand people, only 350 or so tickets were given out. I was not on the list.

My wife actually had a conversation with Oprah a few years ago. She and her mother and her sister in law flew to Chicago and had the opportunity to attend a taping of the Oprah Show. Kathy had the microphone in the audience at one point during the show and had some dialogue with Oprah on national television.

I thought surely Oprah would call Kathy to tell her she was coming to town and invite her and me to the show. But she didn’t.

So I guess I will have to settle for watching the Georgia – Kentucky game on television.

Aww shucks Oprah.


(Pic of Oprah and pic of crowd was stolen from macon.com. Pic of trucks at City Auditorium was taken by me.)