On Friday, July 8, Oprah Winfrey’s father, Vernon Winfrey, died on the age of 88. Oprah posted a tribute to her father on Saturday, celebrating his life and sharing the unhappy information of his loss of life along with her followers. Vernon was a Nashville businessman and barber who died after a battle with most cancers.
Oprah started her submit by sharing that her father lived from 1933-2022. “Lower than every week in the past we honored my father in his personal yard. My pal and gospel singer Wintley Phipps saluted him with track,” she wrote alongside a video from the celebration on her Instagram. “He FELT the love and reveled in it till he may now not communicate.”
She continued, “Yesterday with household surrounding his bedside, I had the sacred honor of witnessing the person chargeable for my life, take his final breath. We may really feel Peace enter the room at his passing. That Peace nonetheless abides. All is nicely. Thanks on your prayers and good ideas 🙏🏾.”
The philanthropist shocked her father on July 4 with a particular celebration in his honor. Oprah dubbed the day “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration,” and hosted an enormous yard barbeque that was attended by household and associates. She shared a video from the occasion on Instagram, which she captioned, “Giving my father his ‘flowers’ whereas he is nonetheless nicely sufficient to odor them. Pleased 4th of July as you collect with your loved ones and associates. Bear in mind to rejoice one another 💐.”
Even Nashville Mayor John Cooper honored Vernon on Twitter. “I supply my deepest condolences to the household of Vernon Winfrey,” the mayor tweeted. “Vernon served on Metro Council for 16 years, and devoted his life to entrepreneurship, barbering and mentoring younger males in the neighborhood. An Military veteran and deacon, he leaves behind a legacy of service.”
In a 2021 interview with Individuals, Oprah spoke passionately concerning the profound impression her father had on her life. “My mom and father by no means married,” she stated. “They’d intercourse one time. He will get a letter after I am born saying, ‘Ship cash. You’ve got a daughter.’ And the explanation he did, he stated, is as a result of it may have been him. And the accountability that he took for me, not only a accountability however care and love and path and help as a younger teenage lady, is the factor that made the distinction in me being who I’m now or anyone you’d have by no means, ever heard of.”
