“Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside I had the sacred honor of watching the man responsible for my life, take his last breath, ” Oprah said in a tribute to her father shared on Instagram. “We could really feel Peace enter the space at his transferring. ”
A tribute created on Oprah Everyday, Oprah’s lifestyle store, said Oprah could spend time with her father in Nashville throughout his final several weeks.
Upon July 4, Vernon was surprised having a “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration” and backyard barbecue, where he had been surrounded by close friends and loved ones.
The special event was a way to give her father his “‘flowers while he’s still well enough to smell them, inch Oprah said in an earlier post.
Throughout the celebration, Oprah’s friend and gospel singer Wintley Phipps did for him. “He FELT the appreciate and reveled inside it until he could no more speak, ” the lady wrote.
Vernon was a well known barber in his community and served on the Metro Nashville Council for 16 yrs.
“I offer my deepest condolences towards the family of Vernon Winfrey. Vernon served upon Metro Council designed for 16 years plus dedicated his lifetime to entrepreneurship, barbering, and mentoring teenagers in the community, ” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said on Twitter. “An Army veteran and deacon, he leaves behind the legacy of service. ”
Oprah’s mother, Vernita Lee, died in 2018 in 83. Lee was created in Mississippi plus gave birth to Winfrey as a young woman. Lee plus Vernon never wedded.