At the funeral of her father Vernon Winfrey on Thursday, July 14, Oprah Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King was there to support her.
Vernon, a politician and businessman from Nashville, died on July 8 after a long battle with cancer. He was 89 years old. His funeral was held at the Temple Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Many famous people from Hollywood and business leaders were there.
On July 13, a memorial service was held for Vernon at the Robert E. Lewis Memorial Chapel. Oprah posted on Instagram that her father had died. She said, “We honored my father in his own backyard less than a week ago.” “My friend Wintley Phipps, who is a gospel singer, sang a song for him. He FELT the love and was so happy about it that he couldn’t speak.”
“Yesterday, with family around his bedside, I had the sacred honor of seeing the man who saved my life take his last breath,” Oprah said. “When he died, we could feel peace come into the room. Peace is still there. It’s all good. Thank you for praying and thinking well of me.”
On July 4, the day before he died, Oprah held a “Vernon Winfrey Appreciation Celebration” for her father. On Monday, Oprah’s close friend and host of “CBS Mornings,” Gayle King, paid tribute to Vernon.
King said, “My table talk is a tribute to Vernon Winfrey.” “Vernon Winfrey was Oprah’s dad. You may have heard that he died on Friday at the age of 89 in Nashville. Now, this sad news comes less than a week after Oprah surprised him with a backyard barbecue party. She called it a Vernon Winfrey appreciation day party, and it was great.”
She ended her speech by talking about how she heard about Vernon’s death and how important he was to Oprah. “I was at a dinner in Idaho on Friday night when I got a text from Oprah that said, ‘Gone.’ I knew what that meant because she’s been in Nashville for the past few weeks, and he had cancer that had spread all over his body,” King said.
“She knew it was only a matter of time, but he thought the tribute to him was a 4th of July party, so when he came out and saw all the people he knew and loved and that Oprah had done this for him, he said, “I didn’t know I was loved this much.” It was very touching to hear people pay tribute to him and see him take it all in, King said. “He said, ‘You know, I just want to make it my 90th birthday,’ which is at the beginning of next year. Oprah said, ‘You know, it’s not about the years, it’s not about a number. It’s about what you’ve done while you’ve been on this Earth.'”
“I really feel that when the time came, and Oprah was there, as it turned out, she was in the room, she said it’s very powerful to see someone die that way, but at least I think he was at peace and I think she was at peace. She’s always been a very good daughter, but he was really one of a kind,” King said.
Oprah wrote on Instagram, “My father is sick, so we wanted all of his friends to be able to come celebrate him while he’s still able to take it all in.” Vernon is Oprah’s father. For many years, he also ran a barbershop and was on the Metro City Council of Nashville.
In the first part of her “The Life You Want” Class on forgiveness, Oprah talked about her father, Vernon Winfrey, who died on July 8. She praised him for how hard he worked and said that because of him, she never missed an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in its 25-year run. She then said that he was fighting stage-four cancer with the same dedication and joy that he had for life. Oprah went on to say why she was glad she had gone with her gut when she decided to make her father’s last days happy.