Remember The First-Ever 'Oprah Show' Guest? Here She Is, 30 Years Later.

Margaret Kent appeared on the show in 1986 to teach women how to find and marry "the one."
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When "The Oprah Winfrey Show" made its national debut in 1986, no one expected it to become the unrivaled leader among daytime talk shows -- especially not the show's first-ever guest.

Her name was Margaret Kent, and for more than a decade, she taught a course teaching women how to get married. After the unexpected death of her husband in 1979, Kent channeled her grief into creating a new life: She became a practicing attorney in Florida. But the strategies she learned in her prior career came in handy when she met tax attorney Robert Feinschreiber -- the two married in 1984.

Kent soon put all of her marriage knowledge on paper and penned two relationship manuals. How to Marry the Man of Your Choice and How to Marry a Superior Woman were sold for a whopping $95 apiece -- that would be more than $200 today -- and came with a money-back guarantee: If you read one of the books and weren't married within three years, Kent would issue you a refund.

Six months after penning How to Marry the Man of Your Choice, Kent found herself on the premiere episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Margaret Kent's book How to Marry the Man of Your Choice came with a money-back guarantee if you weren't married within three years of reading it.
Margaret Kent's book How to Marry the Man of Your Choice came with a money-back guarantee if you weren't married within three years of reading it.
OWN

"You're buying a spouse, not a book," Kent told the audience back then.

Though much of her calculated advice was controversial, she also offered a particularly timeless piece of wisdom. "I tell you ladies, if you're interested in finding a man, you have got to go forward and show off a good mind. It is your best asset," Kent said. "Everything else sags, wrinkles or turns gray eventually."

It's now been 30 years since the attorney and author appeared on "The Oprah Show." In honor of the show's five-year anniversary of the finale, "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" caught up with Kent to see how she's been doing in the years since.

"I'll be eternally grateful to [Oprah] to have that much confidence in putting me on her first show," Kent says today.

Margaret Kent still practices law and is still married to her husband of more than 30 years.
Margaret Kent still practices law and is still married to her husband of more than 30 years.
OWN

Initially, Kent (still married to Feinschreiber, by the way) planned on teaching her marriage course at least twice a year to help people find spouses, but then, her husband presented the book idea.

"He said, 'I'll tell you what. Put it into book form. We'll spend a year promoting it. If it's any good, it'll be successful. And if it's no good, you just give it up and come back and work with me full-time,'" Kent says. "In six months, we were on 'Oprah.'"

Over the years, Kent says she has heard from many women who have used her strategies and soon landed husbands -- including, once, an entire bridal party.

As far as her ability to predict Oprah's professional success, Kent says that there was something about the host's pointed questions and direct demeanor that she sensed would, for better or worse, strike a chord.

"I thought to myself, ‘She’s either going to make it awfully big or not.’ I just didn’t know," Kent admits. "But I certainly admired her courage."

"The Oprah Winfrey Show debuted nationally on Sept. 8, 1986. Twenty-five years later, on May 27, 2011, Oprah gave her final daytime talk show sign-off on the show's series finale.

Another unforgettable "Oprah Show" guest update

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