Oprah as a junior at East Nashville High School, April 1970, after winning first place in the State Forensic Tournament. "It's like winning an Academy Award," she told the student newspaper. Oprah represented Tennessee in dramatic competition in the National Tournament with a reading from God's Trombones by James Weldon Johnson.

Oprah wearing peace symbol earrings in her graduation picture for the yearbook, Class of 1971, East Nashville High School.

Oprah as Student Body Vice President, East High School, Nashville, Tennessee. Left to right: Gary Holt, Student Body President; Oprah.

On Oprah's application for Miss Black Nashville, she signed herself as Oprah Gail Winfrey and stated that she had "never conceived a child," although she had given birth to a little boy she named Vincent Miquelle Lee on February 8, 1969. The baby died March 16, 1969.

The Contestants for Miss Black Nashville in June 1972. Left to right: Maude Mobley; unknown; Patrice Patton-Pricel and the winner Oprah Winfrey, who became Miss Black Tennessee and competed for Miss Black America. "The girl from California won because she stripped," said Oprah, although The New York Times made no mention of the beautiful California singer who won as having performed a strip tease.

Radio disc jockey Tim Watts and Oprah in Baltimore in 2007, thirty years after their tumultuous love affair. "He was her first real love," said Oprah's sister, Patricia, in 1990.

Katharine Carr Esters, Oprah's Cousin, whom she calls "Aunt Katharine," stands with the author, Kitty Kelley, outside Seasonings Eatery in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on July 30, 2007.

Vernon Winfrey and Kitty Kelley in Vernon Winfrey's barbershop in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 22, 2008.

Oprah's father, Vernon Winfrey, whispering to the author, Kitty Kelley, during their interview in Vernon's barbershop in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 22, 2008.