Oprah gets street name

Oprah Winfrey has had a street named in her honor in Chicago.

The 100th block of North Carpenter Avenue in the city which is the location of her chat show has been renamed Oprah Winfrey Way, and the 57-year-old television mogul has joked it is a “full circle miracle” as she had grown up on a “red dirt road” in Mississippi.

“It is really just a full-circle miracle story that a little colored girl born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on a red dirt road ends up with my name on a street in the greatest city in the world, Chicago,” Oprah said. “So, thank you! That’s better than an Oscar or an Emmy.”

The star moved to the city to audition to host a TV show called AM Chicago, and revealed to the crowd outside Harpo Studios yesterday she would have stayed in the city even if she didn’t get the job.

“I thought, even if I don’t get the job, I’ll move into advertising in order to just be able to live in the city, which truly is the greatest city in the world,” she said.

“I just would like to say ‘thank you’ to the mayor and also to the city of Chicago for embracing me and allowing me to take a stand and make a stand here in this city.”

Mayor Richard Daley who was with Oprah to unveil the road sign described her as a “great presence” in the city.

“There isn’t enough time or adequate words that can describe what your 25-year journey has meant to Chicago,” he said.

“Your presence in Chicago has been a gift over two decades. The Oprah Winfrey Show has drawn worldwide attention to our city and an instinctive energy from it.”