As news of her mother’s death spread on Monday, Oprah Winfrey thanked people for their condolences.

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

“Thank you all for your kind words and condolences regarding my mother Vernita Lee’s passing,” wrote on Instagram. “It gives our family great comfort knowing she lived a good life and is now at Peace

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.

Lee died on Thanksgiving at the age of 83.

After living with her grandmother in Mississippi for the first six years of her life, Winfrey traveled to Milwaukee to live with her mother. In 1959 Lee gave birth to Winfrey’s younger half-sister, who died in 2003, followed by a son who died in 1989.

On a 2003 visit to the City of Pewaukee, Winfrey spoke about her childhood in Milwaukee at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s annual Freedom Fund dinner.

She said her best Christmas ever was in Milwaukee when she was 12 and living on North 10th Street.

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