Hoda Kotb brought fans and colleagues alike to tears when she announced earlier this week that she is leaving Today after more than five years as co-anchor of the morning show.

Hoda Kotb is saying goodbye to the "Today" show. While Kotb is a current New Yorker and the product of growing up in Virginia, her origins go back to Oklahoma. Kotb's parents were Egyptian immigrants who left Cairo to study at the University of Oklahoma. Soon after, Kotb was born in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1964.