Oprah Winfrey threw a surprise party for her father before he died

TV mogul Oprah Winfrey recently revealed that she got the chance to show her appreciation for her dad, Vernon Winfrey, just days before his passing.

Vernon recently had a lengthy battle with ill health, so Oprah gathered her closest friends and family around for a lavish Fourth of July backyard party in his honour complete with a banner emblazoned with the words ‘Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Day’.

According to a report by GeoTV,  Vernon was a barber and businessman in Nashville and he died on Friday after battling cancer at the age of 88.

Oprah shared a look inside the family celebration on her Instagram shortly after news of his passing broke, along with a moving caption. 

“Less than a week ago we honoured my father in his own backyard. My friend and gospel singer Wintley Phipps saluted him with song. He FELT the love and revelled in it until he could no longer speak,” wrote Oprah. 

“Yesterday with family surrounding his bedside, I had the sacred honour 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 added in response to the outpouring of support she has been receiving since losing her father. 

Vernon’s death was confirmed by Oprah’s digital publication Oprah Daily on Saturday. The article also contained a statement from the legendary talk show host.

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Hollywood Life reports that at some point, he also served as a city councilman.

The media mogul credits Vernon with ​​”changing the course of her life.”

“I started acting out my need for attention, my need to be loved,” she told the Washington Post in 1986. 

“My mother didn’t have the time. She worked every day as a maid. … I was smart and my mother, because she didn’t have the time for me, I think, tried to stifle it.”

As a teen, she went to live with Vernon and that is when she said her life changed.

“It changed the course of my life. He saved me… He simply knew what he wanted and expected. He would take nothing less.”