Oprah Winfrey's mom Vernita Lee dies on Thanksgiving at age 83

[sandensea]

Oprah Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee, died at her Milwaukee home last week, her family announced Monday.

Lee was 18 when she gave birth to her first child in rural Mississippi, naming her "Orpah" after a woman mentioned in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Ruth, but many mispronounced it as Oprah and the name stuck.

She died this Thanksgiving at the age of 83.

Lee was a lifetime member of the NAACP and her daughter joked at the dinner that Lee had been asking her for years to come to Waukesha County to speak at the Freedom Fund event.

She is survived by her daughters Winfrey and Lee, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

At: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/obituaries/2018/11/26/oprahs-mother-vernita-lee-dies-her-milwaukee-home/2113618002/

Vernita Lee, 1935-2018.

[littlemissmartypants]

1. .

[spicysista]

2. R.I.P. Ms. Lee

[JHan]

3. Rest In Power Ms Lee

[The Polack MSgt]

4. RIP Ms Lee.

[Kind of Blue]

5. Rest in Peace, Ms. Lee.

The most powerful thing I heard Oprah did for her mom, besides retiring her into a life of comfort that she deserved, was to help Ms. Lee let go of the trauma of giving up a daughter in 1963.

Thanks, sandensea, for posting the photo of Ms. Lee and her two surviving daughters that includes the daughter given up long ago, Ms. Patricia Amanda Faye Lee. Just beautiful.