On July 8, at the age of 88, Oprah Winfrey’s father, Vernon Winfrey, passed away.
His daughter had previously posted on social media that Vernon Winfrey had been ill. However, Winfrey did not go into specifics about her condition.
Winfrey posted a heartfelt update to her social media accounts in which she revealed the news and shared a video of her father being serenaded by family members at a Fourth of July celebration.
The entrepreneur, who is 68 years old, paid tribute to her father with a heartfelt caption.
About his father, Vernon Winfrey, Winfrey wrote, “Less than a week ago we honoured him in his own backyard.” “My good buddy Wintley Phipps, a gospel singer, sang a song in his honour. He experienced the affection firsthand and was overcome with emotion.”
She went on to say, “Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside I had the sacred honour of witnessing the man responsible for my life take his last breath.” “When he died, a calm settled over the room. Peace has not yet been broken. Nothing at all is wrong.”
At the end of her caption, Winfrey thanked her fans for their support and prayers.
Winfrey’s father, who served in the United States Army and later settled in East Nashville, is said to have played a number of important roles in the area throughout his life by the Washington Post. He owned a barbershop and had been cutting hair for over half a century, but he was also a Nashville city councilman, a church deacon, and a grocer.
Vernita Lee, Winfrey’s mother, passed away on Thanksgiving Day in 2018. She was 83 years old. According to an interview Winfrey gave to People at the time, she said of her mother’s death, “I feel like it was as sacred and as blessed as a passing can be.”
Winfrey and her family celebrated what they called a “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration” on the Fourth of July instead of Independence Day. After the event, former talk show host Gayle King filmed and posted a touching Instagram video of the day.
For some time now, we’ve been plotting a backyard barbecue that will be much more than just that. For “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Day,” she explained. “My father is ill, and we wanted him to be able to celebrate with all of his friends while he was still able to enjoy it.”
Behind the scenes, King inquired as to whether or not Winfrey’s father understood the significance of the Fourth of July celebration, to which Winfrey responded, “he doesn’t even know that this is for him.”
In the Instagram caption, Winfrey wrote, “Giving my father his ‘flowers’ while he’s still well enough to smell them. Let me wish you and your loved ones a joyous and safe Fourth of July celebration. Never forget to have a little fun and enjoy each other’s company.
Winfrey wrote a story on Oprah Daily about her time spent in Nashville with her father in honour of Father’s Day this year.
Winfrey wrote, referencing one of his favourite parables, “My father was strict, he was disciplined, always afraid that I was going to stray from the path of righteousness he was trying to lay before me.”
She went on to say, “So today I salute my father, Vernon Winfrey, and all the fathers who’ve done the best they knew at the time to give you, me, us the guidance and support they were capable of giving.” Winfrey credited her father with helping to make her a household name. I can attest to the fact that a good father can drastically alter a child’s life course.
