REPORT: Vernita Lee, Mother Of Oprah Winfrey Dies On Thanksgiving Day

MISSISSIPPI. (THECOUNT) — Vernita Lee, mother of media mogul Oprah Winfrey, died at 83, multiple media outlets reported.

TMZ was the first to exclusively confirm the news after noticing that Winfrey’s niece, Alisha Hayes, said that Lee died on Thanksgiving Day. She was born in 1935 in Mississippi.

Lee has already been laid to rest during a private family funeral, a spokesperson for Winfrey told People.

Winfrey released a statement about her mother’s passing on Twitter, along with a picture of the two.

“Thank you to my mother Vernita Lee for doing the best she knew and could do in raising me,” she said. source

Developing.