Photo: Adriane Jaeckle/ Getty
Oprah Winfrey’s fatherVernonhas died. He was 88.
Vernon - who was a barber and businessman in Nashville - died on Friday after battling cancer. Media mogul Oprah, 68, posted atributeto her father on Saturday.
She continued, “Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside I had the sacred honor of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath. We could feel Peace enter the room at his passing.”
“That Peace still abides. All is well. Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts 🙏🏾,” she ended the caption.
Ina video shared on her Instagram, Oprah said that although she was hosting a backyard barbecue, the true reason for the occasion was to hold a Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Day.
“My father is ill and so we wanted to be able to have all of his friends come and celebrate him while he’s able to receive the joy,” she said while showing off the banner behind her in her father’s honor.
“He thinks it’s a Fourth of July thing,” she continued. “He doesn’t know … He’s gonna walk out and see everything.”
Running down the menu for the event, Oprah said she was serving fried chicken, turkey, burgers “and all that stuff.”
In the caption of her post, Oprah wrote, “Giving my father his ‘flowers’ while he’s still well enough to smell them. Happy 4th of July as you gather with your family and friends. Remember to celebrate each other 💐”
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In June 2021, Oprah spoke with PEOPLEabout her fatherahead of the OWN special titledHonoring Our Kings, Celebrating Black Fatherhood, in which she co-hosted withThis Is UsalumSterling K. Brown.
“I had a father who took responsibility for me, even though he knew I could have been somebody else’s child,” she said of Vernon.
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“I saw that over and over again in my father’s barbershop. Men would come in, hardworking men, doing everything they could in their lives to support their families, working sometimes two and three jobs to do that,” she continued. “So that’s the story I know of Black fathers — the ones I grew up with and the man I know. The narrative of the absentee father, it’s not accurate that that is the only picture. That’s what I want to say.”
source: people.com
