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Vernon Winfrey, a barber, from Nashville, Tennessee, city councilman and father to talkshow legend Oprah Winfrey, has died.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday with family surrounding his bedside I had the sacred honour of witnessing the man responsible for my life, take his last breath,\u201d Oprah wrote Saturday\u00a0in an Instagram post. \u201cWe could feel Peace enter the room at his passing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vernon Winfrey died Friday at the age of 89,\u00a0according to Oprah Daily. Oprah shared publicly last week that her father had cancer, and\u00a0surprised him\u00a0with a Fourth of July celebration she had renamed \u201cVernon Winfrey Appreciation Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vernon Winfrey was a\u00a0beloved barber\u00a0for more than 50 years in Nashville, where he owned his own barber shop. He also served on the city council for 16 years and was a trustee for Tennessee State University,\u00a0according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Oprah has long credited her father for her success,\u00a0telling The Washington Post\u00a0in 1986 that if she hadn\u2019t been sent to live with him as a teen, she \u201cwould have gone in another direction,\u201d adding that she otherwise \u201ccould have made a good criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n
And last month, she honoured her dad in a Father\u2019s Day video.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo today I salute my father, Vernon Winfrey, and all the fathers who\u2019ve done the best they knew at the time to give you, me, us, the guidance and support they were capable of,\u201d she said,\u00a0per TODAY. \u201cI know firsthand how the trajectory of life can change by the positive influence of a good father.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added, \u201cIf it were not for him, I doubt that anybody in the world would know my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
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