From NBC Nightly News

Military wife, Sam Scarpace, moved from place to place – she lacked friends. But she found a friend in watching Oprah wherever she’d moved.

“You spend a lot of time alone and you can either get in trouble or you can figure out how to entertain yourself, and my entertainment was Oprah,” Scarpace said.

Everyday Scarpace would watch Oprah for guidance and comfort — impacting her daughter, Sarah McCraw.

“It was an hour of tapping into pain that you didn’t realize you had or helping you laugh about something that you didn’t realize you needed a good laugh about,” McCraw said.

Oprah talked with people about topics that were usually uncomfortable to talk about – like everything from homosexuality to personal struggles.

Oprah also opened about her own personal struggles from family secrets to her weight.

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“Oprah Winfrey embodies the last golden age of television talk show hosts,” author Paul Levinson said.

McCraw surprised her mother with Oprah tickets – after Oprah announced her show would be ending last year.

The mother and daughter joined more than 10,000 people at the United Center in Chicago, which included celebrity friends, to say farewell to the Oprah Winfrey Show.

“It’s time to say goodbye,” Winfrey said, referring to the end of her show.

Oprah fans can still find her on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

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