The 68-year-old TV star posted an emotional tribute to her father Vernon Winfrey on Instagram today, announcing he died in his Nashville home on July 8.“Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside I had the sacred honor (sic) of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath,” Oprah wrote alongside a video montage of her dad. “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.”In a longer post on her website, Oprah Daily, the legendary interviewer said she had spent the last few weeks of Vernon’s life by his side.Oprah also posted a video clip from the July 4 weekend, in which she hosted a “celebration dedicated to honouring his life.”“Oprah called it the “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration” and surprised him with flowers, balloons, a giant sign, and some of his favorite (sic) people including his older sister, Christine, who he greeted with a tearful embrace,” a post on Oprah’s website reads.In a clip from the celebration, Oprah can be heard saying to Vernon: “Thank you for being the kind of father who has brought honour to your life and honour to my life.”Just weeks ago, in line with Father’s Day, Oprah shared intimate details about her beloved father in a lengthy post on her website alongside a video of herself at her childhood home.“It’s a common bond that we all share that we all have fathers. I’m back in Nashville to visit my dad. This is the house where I spent most of my teen years, here on Arrington Street, with him and my stepmother,” Oprah said.“When I finally made enough money to buy them a better home, I did, but all the best memories come from this little space.“My father was strict, he was disciplined, always afraid that I was gonna stray from the path of righteousness he was trying to lay before me.“We went to church every Sunday, read out loud from the Bible regularly, and he used to tell me stories and parables all the time.”Oprah was born in 1954 in Mississippi to a then-unmarried 14-year-old maid, Vernita Lee – who died in 2018 – and Vernon, who was a coal miner turned barber.There were questions over whether or not Vernon was Oprah’s biological father, however, he took responsibility for her anyway.In June 2021, Oprah spoke with People about how her father “saved” her when she was sent to live with him as a troubled teenager.“I had a father who took responsibility for me, even though he knew I could have been somebody else’s child,” Oprah said.“My mother and father never married … They had sex one time. He gets a letter after I’m born saying, ‘Send money. You have a daughter.’ “And the reason he did, he said, is because it could have been him. And the responsibility that he took for me, not just a responsibility but care and love and direction and support as a young teenage girl, is the thing that made the difference in me being who I am now or somebody you would have never, ever heard of.”
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