Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [63]
“I was hired to take Oprah’s place as coanchor of People Are Talking,” said Beverly Burke, a television news reporter from North Carolina, “and it was a huge adjustment for me. But Oprah was great. She took me to lunch at the deli in Cross Keys and told me how the show worked. She talked candidly about Richard Sher, said he was Mr. Television—always on—and would totally dominate the show but that he was very good at what he does and quite professional.… If it weren’t for Oprah, I wouldn’t have gotten that job. If not for her success, they would’ve been looking for a white coanchor.…
“Still it was a huge adjustment for me. But I didn’t feel I had to be Oprah.… She had never been an in-the-trenches reporter, which was more my style. Oprah was flash. She was criticized for showing up to do a news story wearing a fur coat.”
In the weeks before she left, Richard Sher teased Oprah on the air. “She’s leaving us behind and she’ll forget all about us in no time.… Remember where you got your start.” Beverly Burke saw an edge to his teasing. “She was leaving him behind and everybody knew it.” But unlike others at the station, Sher encouraged Oprah. “I thought [the move] would be great for her,” he said years later. “I knew she would become as big a star as she has become.” As a going-away present, Oprah gave him a gold Rolex watch, on the back of which she had engraved, “Ope, 1978–1983.”
The decision to leave Baltimore was the most important of Oprah’s life, and she never forgot who encouraged her and who tried to hold her back. She remained close to Richard Sher, spoke at his synagogue, and even attended his sixtieth-birthday party. Publicly, she said she would be forever grateful to Bill Baker for giving her the start, but inexplicably, she never spoke to him again, despite his illustrious rise in broadcasting to become president of WNET public television in New York. Upon his retirement in 2007 he was celebrated with a magazine of tributes from networks and esteemed television colleagues: Bill Moyers, Charlie Rose, Joan Ganz Cooney, Newton Minow, and Bob Wright. But there was no tribute from Oprah Winfrey. She never spoke to Paul Yates again, either, but when Skip Ball, an engineer at WJZ, was dying, she flew to Baltimore to spend time with him in the hospital.
In December 1983 the station threw her a farewell party at Café des Artistes in Baltimore, which her mother, Vernita Lee, attended with Oprah’s brother, Jeffrey. All of WJZ’s on-air stars showed up—Jerry Turner, Al Sanders, Bob Turk, Don Scott, Marty Bass, and Richard Sher. Paul Yates presented her with a Cuisinart, a photo album of her days at the station, a basketful of her favorite ballpoint pens, and a twenty-five-inch Sony Trinitron television, but the gift that brought her to tears was the life-size Oprah doll wearing a copy of her favorite dress, made by Jorge Gonzalez, the station’s makeup artist and graphic designer.
In her farewell speech, Oprah thanked everyone and praised Baltimore as the place where she grew up and became a woman. She then called Beverly Burke to the stage, gave her a warm introduction, and wagged her finger at the crowd, telling them to be nice to her.
Days later she packed up her five coats from Mano Swartz Furs and headed for Chicago, while Tim Watts quietly left town for Los Angeles to try to become a stand-up comic. For the next five months they planned to see each other on weekends, with Oprah flying back and forth to the West Coast. So leaving Baltimore was not as wrenching as she had anticipated. In fact, the future looked bright. Arleen Weiner drove her to the airport and kissed her goodbye, shouting down the terminal, “I hope you make it, hon.… I hope you make it.”
UNLEASHED AND uninhibited, Oprah chewed up the talk show competition. Chicago television viewers had never seen an overweight black female host before, and they were