Kevin Roy: OPRAH & ME '86

Monday, January 14, 1986
On the first Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday, Oak Park & River Forest High School's guest speaker was Oprah Winfrey.

She arrived in a purple limousine the day after she was nominated for an Oscar Award for her work in "The Color Purple."

I was a Senior at OPRFHS.

I got the plum assignment because I was the only student on the school's newspaper, "The Trapeze," and its student run TV News program, "Newscene."

Keep in mind, the national debut of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is 7 months away at the time of this interview.

Oprah has signed the deal giving her the rights to her show, a suggestion made by her friend, Film Critic Roger Ebert.

I walked away from our interview feeling I was on the right path.

Thank you, Ms. Winfrey, for inspiring me to live my best life!

For this and for so many other "A-Ha Moments," you are my "F-P-O-E; Favorite Person on Earth."

I named my "little human with fur" Harpo, as you like to call your canine best friends. You are his "backwards namesake," as I like to tell people -- a "Harpo Puppy Production."