Why Did Oprah Have To Live With Her Grandmother?

Oprah Winfrey had to move in with her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee, when she was 7, because her grandmother was dying. Hattie Mae Lee died in 1963.

Hattie lived in Milwaukee and had taught Oprah how to read, but she was also an abusive woman who made Oprah sleep on the couch by the boarding house owner.

“I was beaten for the slightest reasons. Spilled water, a broken glass, the inability to keep quiet or still. … The long-term impact of being whupped — then forced to hush and even smile about it — turned me into a world-class people pleaser for most of my life”, Oprah explains.

Who Was Oprah Winfrey’s Mother?

Late Vernita Lee is the mother of American TV host Oprah Winfrey. Lee passed away on November 22, 2018, at age 83.

Lee was born to her parents, Ernest Lee and Hattie Mae Presley in Kosciusko, Mississippi on May 2, 1935.

Lee worked as a cook. She developed interest in cooking from a very early age and learnt how to bake at age 8.

She relocated to Milwaukee with her parents  in 1958.

While at Milwaukee, she served as head cook at St. Michael’s Hospital and was a member of the choir at her local church, the Metropolitan Church.