Oprah says "Good bye" to fans

Oprah Winfrey walked away from her show after 25 years on Wednesday, the culmination of her "farewell season" and the exclamation point on a week of hype and deification rarely seen on television, particularly for someone who really isn't going away at all.

Her final hour was a fine-tuned example of the self-help mantra that has guided her to astonishing success and made her more famous and more powerful than all the televangelists combined. The finale was the Sermon in the Studio, the reaffirmation of the tenets that kept her flock coming back, day after day, to hear the Word of Oprah, informs Hollywood Reporter.

"This last hour is about me saying thank you. It is my love letter to you. I want to leave you all with the lessons that have been the anchor for my life and the ones that I hold most precious," she said in the finale of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," dressed in an elegant peach sheath, diamonds bobbing brilliantly off her wrist and ears, according to Washington Post.

Local residents said yesterday that they respect Winfrey for her philanthropy and the inspiring nature of her program, according to MetroWest Daily News.