She was a top model; unbelievably beautiful.

But her real career was always for humanity.

A Woman Who Is A Friend In Deed

O'Neal said, "Everything changed in the late eighties. The AIDS crisis; that's when everything changed."

In response to this change, which was far more dramatic than any stage O'Neal ever walked on, Cynthia and Diane Sawyer's husband, Mike Nichols started an organization. The organization supports people with a life threatening illness. O'Neal is hands-on with helping their clients face death. After losing more and more friends to the AIDS epidemic, she was desperate to find a way to reach out to the souls of those afflicted with HIV, cancer and other life threatening diseases.

Today, Cynthia works tirelessly to help AIDS victims learn how to smile for the first time in a long time.

She helps them deal with their anger, their fear, and their resentment as they contend with the possibility of death.

O'Neal and Nichols' organization is called "Friends In Deed".

Friends In Deed is a team of 250 volunteers who offer one-on-one crisis counseling. They hold weekly yoga and guided meditation classes. They host workshops and seminars to help their friends make empowering decisions.

In addition, their HIV Prevention Program for teens has reached over 70,000 kids.

To offer your support to Friends In Deed, please contact Founder & President Cynthia O'Neal directly at coneal@friendsindeed.org.

Alicia Keys Introduces Sydnee "The Survivor" Bush

Oprah gave R&B star Alicia Keys, a woman with soul on the inside and out, the opportunity to introduce one of her greatest inspirations.

Sydnee Bush, a thirteen year-old girl, who suffered from Stage 4 Hodgkin's Disease, has been an inspiration to Alicia, as well as to her mother, to her father and to her entire community in Savannah, Georgia.

Alicia said, "This young woman was the rock in her family."

Sydnee's dad said, "Things we should have been saying to her, she was saying to us."

Alicia believes Sydnee is someone we can all learn from.

Alicia Keys' Inspiration Sydnee Bush

The poet taught Alicia about bravery and how to have a positive attitude through hard times.

Sydnee got through eight months of intensive chemotherapy by expressing her feelings in rhyme.

When Sydnee was invited to Oprah's live stage of life, Sydnee shared one of her forty poems with the audience.

The Blind Leading The Blind ... to Greatness

Oprah's best friend, Gayle King, was next up to nominate a woman we should meet.

In August 2005, Sabriye Tenberken was profiled in O : The Oprah Magazine as A Phenomenal Woman.

Sabriye is blind.

At the age of twelve, a degenerative eye disease took away her sight.

However, her blindness has not stopped her from succeeding wildly in life.

Recently, she has been on mission in Tibet. Her mission is to become one of the "blind leading the blind".

This very attractive woman with a wonderful sense of humor started an organization with her boyfriend, Paul Kronenberg called "Braille Without Borders".

It is in Tibet she has set up the very first school for the blind. Her goal is to help kids, many of whom are considered outcasts, to have confidence, and to not be ashamed.

At the age of twenty-six, Sabriye says, "The good thing about being blind is that you don't see the obstacles."

"I see a lot of people who say, 'I can not do this, or I can not do that,'" Sabriye said. "First of all, I don't want to hear this anymore," she said.

A lot of people told her she could not go to Tibet and start this project.

Sabriye not only went to Tibet, she rode on horseback through villages.

Sabriye said:

You know what? This is something really funny.

A lot of people, they ask me, 'How do you ride?'

I mean the horse has eyes. They can see.

Sabriye has seen the results of her efforts in more ways than one. Tibetan parents who used to lock their blind child up in a dark room or tie them to a bed now have hope -- thanks to Sabriye -- that perhaps their child can not only survive but thrive on their own.

While it was not mentioned on the show, last year Sabriye's story was published. Her book is called My Path Leads to Tibet: The Inspiring Story of How One Young Blind Woman Brought Hope to the Blind Children of Tibet.

My Path Leads to Tibet

Now, Tenberken wants to start an international training center in South India.

She wants to train blind people from all over the world, especially from developing countries. She wants to help provide them with management skills. She wants to offer them project-planning skills. She wants to train them to have fundraising skills and speech training.

She said, "They need to know they can start their own projects to fight poverty."

She is adamant about helping blind people see that they can do something meaningful for society.

As Tenberken and Kronenberg say on their Web site:

Braille Without Borders wants to empower blind people in these countries so they themselves can set up projects and schools for other blind people. In this way the concept can be spread across the globe so more blind and visually impaired people have access to education and a better future.

Ultimately, Tenberken is on a mission to touch the 161 million visually impaired people in the world.

Read the entire story Gayle King was inspired to tell in O: The Oprah Magazine at:

Sabriye will also be appearing on Monday, October 24th on Comcast Cable Systems' CNN HEADLINE NEWS. She will appear at 11:55am, 4:55pm and 9:55pm on a program called Seeking Solutions with Suzanne, Women of Discovery.

Three Women You'll Be Cheering For -- In San Francisco, CA

Oprah's next feature was a focus on three women leaders in Northern California: the Fire Chief, the Police Chief and the District Attorney of San Francisco.

These three trailblazers are also featured in this week's edition of Newsweek.

Their names and titles?

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White
Police Chief Heather Fong
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris

Mayor Gavin Newsom said about these women leaders:

These are tough-minded women, who work longer than I do as mayor of San Francisco, who truly have the weight of the safety of San Francisco on their shoulders.

And it is true that I know a lot of guys that can't do more than one thing at a time.

These three women are able to do ten things at a time.

The city didn't allow women firefighters until 1987.

Fire Chief to the largest fire department in the world, Joanne Hayes-White is in charge of 1,800 firefighters. She is also the mother of three young sons.

Hayes-White is humbled to be in the position she has earned.

She believes it sends a powerful message to little girls that if you work hard, you can achieve your dreams.

Heather Fong is also the first chief on the San Francisco police force.

Fong grew up in San Francisco. She's been on the force for twenty-nine years. Fong has heart. She cares about her team. She also brings a woman's perspective to the scene of the crime.

San Francisco Officer Philip Welsh spoke about her sense of fairness and compassion. He said:

I've known Chief Fong for over ten years. She's seen me through a difficult time. My wife passed away and left me with three children. She always takes time to ask me how I'm doing, how the children are doing.

Winfrey said, "Chief Fong brings a woman's perspective to the scene of a crime."

Fong stressed the importance of showing compassion and a sense of humanity. She looks to each one of the people on her force to be compassionate when dealing with a traumatic situation.

Superstar Kamala Harris made history when she was elected the city's first African American female District Attorney. Today, Harris stands with a 90% conviction rate.

Harris is proud of creating a child assault unit. She is dedicated to prosecuting these kinds of cases.

On a personal note, for someone who lives in Harris', Fong's and Hayes-White's city, it is too bad Harris is not also dedicated to making sure drug lords are put behind bars. Especially those who shoot and kill their competitors at Pitts Plaza -- just one block away from where Tim and I live with our two young children.

In just two months, there have been five homicides in our neighborhood.

My friend, who is a local FBI agent, says, "The local drug lords are not concerned about being arrested for dealing drugs because they know Kamala Harris won't put them behind bars."

One of Oprah's Living Legends

She is known from her roles on the hit tv series The West Wing, the movie Philadelphia and The American President.

She is also the author of a number of books including:

Fires in the Mirror (September 1993)

Twilight : Los Angeles, 1992 (March 1994)

Talk to Me : Listening Between the Lines (October 2000)

Talk to Me : Travels in Media and Politics (October 2001)

House Arrest and Piano: Two Plays (April 2004)

And coming this January 2006, "Letters to a Young Artist".

She is also a professor.

Oprah told her audience, "Stanford, Yale and NYU line up to get a seat in her class."

Last year, she was a guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball, honoring African-American women who have paved the way for others.

In addition to the many awards she has received, she won the Mac Arthur Grant -- better known as "The Genius Award."

Oprah said, "I always knew she was one."

Her name is Anna Deavere Smith.

She is an actress, author, playwright, and professor I had never heard of before today.

Now, I look forward to learning all I can about this bright, talented, charismatic woman. In so doing, I look forward to reading a number of her books.

Oprah said:

She's the definition of class. She is so smart.

Anna Deavere Smith's new book "letters to a young artist" is on Oprah's bedside table. Oprah said, "I'm going to give it to every person I know."

Smith said with a smile, "I'd like that."

The sub-title of her book is "straight-up advice on making a life in the arts -- for actors, performers, writers, and artists of every kind".

Actor, Laurence Fishburne was quoted on the cover of her upcoming book. He said, this book "will serve as inspiration to artists of every age."

It sounds like the perfect book for one of my soul mates, the incredibly talented performer, actor and artist, Ron Kellum.

On Monday, Deavere Smith said she included her friend Oprah in the book.

She described Winfrey as "a person with presence."

Anna said:

Presence is that feeling that the person on stage is sitting right next to you.

We've all had that.

She's singing to me kind-of-thing.

And I think it comes not just because people pay attention to you, but because you pay attention to other people.

Oprah next asked Anna, "What do you want women to know about intuition?"

Smith replied:

I think all of us have greater knowledge than we know. That's what intuition is. It's not what somebody taught you. You can't buy it. And that's why it's so important to value it.

Anna Deavere Smith was the last of Winfrey's fabulous guests introduced on Oprah's Monday show.

Hopefully you TiVo'd the show, and got to meet these eight women yourself. If not, I hope this play-by-play inspires you to learn more about them and Oprah Winfrey.

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "oxygenated estrogen at-its-best" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King, Rugged Elegance, LLC

P.S. In doing research for this story, I found a fabulous article about Oprah Winfrey's life and accomplishments.

It can be found at: