Televangelist Tammy Faye Messner Dies
Former Wife of Jim Bakker Suffered From Inoperable Cancer By STEVE
HARTSOE, AP - 2007-07-21
RALEIGH, N.C. (July 21) - Tammy Faye Messner, who as Tammy Faye Bakker
helped her husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire
and then saw it collapse in disgrace, has died. She was 65.
Tammy Faye Messner, here in 2005, died Friday after battling colon
cancer for over 10 years. She had frequently spoken about her medical
problems, saying she hoped to be an inspiration to others. Messner, who
had battled colon cancer since 1996 that more recently spread to her
lungs, died at her home Friday, said her booking agent, Joe Spotts. A
family service was held Saturday in a private cemetery, where her ashes
were interred, he said.
She had frequently spoken about her medical problems, saying she hoped
to be an inspiration to others. "Don't let fear rule your life," she
said. "Live one day at a time, and never be afraid." But she told well-
wishers in a note on her Web site in May that the doctors had stopped
trying to treat the cancer.
In an interview with CNN's Larry King two months later, an emaciated
Messner - still wearing her trademark makeup - said, "I believe when I
leave this earth, because I love the Lord, I'm going straight to
heaven." Asked if she had any regrets, Messner said: "I don't think
about it, Larry, because it's a waste of good brain space."
For many, the TV image of then-Mrs. Bakker forgiving husband Jim's
infidelities, tears streaking her cheeks with mascara, became a symbol
for the wages of greed and hypocrisy in 1980s America.
She divorced her husband of 30 years in 1992 while he was in prison for
defrauding millions from followers of their PTL television ministries.
The letters stood for "Praise the Lord" or "People that Love."
Her second husband also served time in prison. She married Roe Messner,
who had been the chief builder of the Bakkers' Heritage USA Christian
theme park near Fort Mill, South Carolina, in 1993. In 1995, he was
convicted of bankruptcy fraud, and he spent about two years in prison.
Through it all, Messner kept plugging her faith and herself. She did
concerts, a short-lived secular TV talk show and an inspirational
videotape. In 2004, she cooperated in the making of a documentary about
her struggle with cancer, called "Tammy Faye: Death Defying."
"I wanted to help people ... maybe show the inside (of the experience)
and make it a little less frightening," she said.
That same year, she appeared on the reality show "The Surreal Life,"
co-starring with former rapper Vanilla Ice, ex-porn star Ron Jeremy and
others. She told King in 2004 that she didn't know who Jeremy was when
they met and they became friends.
Messner was never charged with a crime in connection with the Bakker
scandal. She said she counted the costs in other ways.
"I know what it's like to hit rock bottom," she said in promotional
material for her 1996 video "You Can Make It."
In the mid-1980s, the Bakkers were on top, ruling over a ministry that
claimed 500,000 followers. Their "Jim and Tammy Show," part TV talk
show, part evangelism meeting, was seen across the country. Heritage USA
boasted a 500-room hotel, shopping mall, convention center, water-
amusement park, TV studio and several real-estate developments. PTL
employed about 2,000 people.
Then in March 1987, Bakker resigned, admitting he had a tryst with
Jessica Hahn, a 32-year-old former church secretary.
Tammy Faye Bakker stuck with her disgraced husband through five stormy
years of tabloid headlines as the ministry unraveled.
Prosecutors said the PTL organization sold more than 150,000 "lifetime
partnerships" promising lodging at the theme park but did not build
enough hotel space with the $158 million in proceeds. At his fraud
trial, Jim Bakker was accused of diverting $3.7 million to personal use
even though he knew the ministry was financially shaky. Trial testimony
showed PTL paid $265,000 to Hahn to cover up the sexual encounter with
the minister.
Jim Bakker was convicted in 1989 of 24 fraud and conspiracy counts and
sentenced to 45 years. The sentence was later reduced, and he was freed
in 1994. He said that his wife's decision to leave him had been "like a
meat hook deep in my heart. I couldn't eat for days."
While not charged, his then-wife shared during the 1980s in the public
criticism and ridicule over the couple's extravagance, including the
reportedly gold-plated bathroom fixtures and an air-conditioned
doghouse.
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