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 together with her followers. Vernon was a Nashville businessman and barber who died after a battle with most cancers.
Oprah started her publish 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 music,” 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 answerable for my life, take his final breath. We may really feel Peace enter the room at his passing. That Peace nonetheless abides. All is properly. Thanks on your prayers and good ideas 🙏🏾.”
The philanthropist shocked her father on July 4 with a particular occasion in his honor. Oprah dubbed the day “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration,” and hosted an enormous yard barbeque that was attended by household and pals. She shared a video from the occasion on Instagram, which she captioned, “Giving my father his ‘flowers’ whereas he is nonetheless properly sufficient to odor them. Glad 4th of July as you collect with your loved ones and pals. Bear in mind to have a good time one another 💐.”
Even Nashville Mayor John Cooper honored Vernon on Twitter. “I provide 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 Folks, Oprah spoke passionately in regards to the profound influence her father had on her life. “My mom and father by no means married,” she stated. “That they had intercourse one time. He will get a letter after I am born saying, ‘Ship cash. You may have a daughter.’ And the explanation he did, he stated, is as a result of it may have been him. And the duty that he took for me, not only a duty however care and love and route and assist as a younger teenage woman, is the factor that made the distinction in me being who I’m now or anyone you’ll have by no means, ever heard of.”