(Photos: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)

The woman who made reading fundantmental (again) and managed to captivate the country for 25 years, claiming Gayle King as her best-friend and Stedman as her right-hand man, said goodbye to her legions of fans yesterday on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The woman-next-door who has made millions confess their deepest darkest secrets, from Michael Jackson introducing the word vitiligo as a viable skin disease to Tom Cruise aparently losing his Mission Impossible mind while jumping on her couch, Winfrey has been a steady fixture in many homes for the past 25 years. A legend, who no doubt, helped Barack Obama win the 2008 Presidential election after endorsing him, Winfrey has said goodbye to day-time television hosting, but hello to network owning, as the head of the new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

Sure she's tranformed greatly since 1986 as the Barbara Walter's "admirer" to the icon known as O or Harpo or simply Oprah, but she was always really about her audience: women and men. Her finale show exhibited just that as she came out solo in a pink dress, no guest, no superstars (besides herself), no drama, and re-presented the last 25 life-changing television events that made her into the superstar she's become and the idolizer of many. In this last show, Ms. winfrey says her show was always about the "common connection in our human experiences" and we as viewers have no choice but to believe her.

Oprah presented America with A-Ha moments, Pulitzer Prize winning books and heart-breaking, heart-rendering and eye-opening stories about addictions and abuse in various forms. With that and a rock-star's life later, we salute Ms. Winfrey and her fierceness and say: "Until next time." We see you!

(Photos: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)