A high-end clothing shop isn’t the only creditor to have taken Oprah Winfrey’s mother to court.

The Valentina boutique in Brookfield, Wis., sued Vernita Lee last week, saying she owes the store $156,000 for purchases and interest and failed to make the minimum monthly payment of $2,000 on her charge account. Lee said she doesn’t feel she owes them the money.

But six years ago, John Kowske had to took Lee to court in Milwaukee, where she lives, after she failed to pay him the $4,304.90 she owed him, according to papers posted on webofdeception.com.

“Vernita was a co-signer on a loan for her daughter Pat,” a source tells us. “Sadly, Pat died of a drug overdose.”

A judge ordered Lee to pay the debt, according to the papers.

Kowske could not be reached, and Lee’s lawyer, Steven Gistenson, wouldn’t comment on either case. “I’m not going to address [the boutique case] in the media - it’s going to be addressed in the courts,” he told us. “And I wasn’t involved in the previous case.”

A spokeswoman for Harpo Productions would not comment as to whether Winfrey will pay off her mother’s alleged debt.

But chances are good that the talk-show titan retained Gistenson, a prominent in lawyer in Chicago, where she lives, for Vernita. While Oprah seems to have forgiven her mother, Vernita did leave her behind with grandparents after giving birth to her at 18. Winfrey lived with her as an older child in Milwaukee, when she was sexually abused by a cousin and other male relatives. It is not known whether Vernita was aware of the abuse.

Winfrey ended up living with her father, a stern disciplinarian, in Tennessee. “No one ever told me I was loved,” Winfrey once said. “Ever, ever, ever.”

(source)

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