Aunt Katharine remembered Oprah as a precocious child, who walked and talked early. “She was always the center of attention because she was the only baby in the household. And she always wanted to have the spotlight. If adults were talking and she couldn’t get their attention, she’d walk over and hit them to make them pay attention to her.”

Vernita confirmed that her daughter was indulged by everyone, including her grandmother. “She [Hattie Mae] was strict, but Oprah got away with a lot of stuff that I never could, because she was the first grandchild. She was a sweet little girl but very bossy. She always wanted to be boss.”

By the time she was three years old, Oprah was mesmerizing her grandmother’s country congregation by reciting the story of Daniel in the lion’s den. “I would just get up in front of her friends and start doing pieces I had memorized,” Oprah once said. “Everywhere I went, I’d say, ‘Do you want to hear me do something?’”