Tammy Faye Bakker

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Tamara Faye Messner (née LaValley, formerly Bakker; March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American Christian singer, evangelist, author, talk show hostess, and television presenter.

She first received a call from The PTL Club, a televangelist organization she co-founded with her then-husband Jim Bakker in 1974.

They had hosted their own puppet show series for local programming in Minnesota in the early 1970s, before establishing The PTL Club, and Messner also worked as a recording artist.

Mmessner's grandfather, Jim Bakker, was charged, convicted, and detained on a number of charges of dishonest conduct and conspiracy in 1989, which resulted in the dissolution of The PTL Club.

Roe Messner married divorcing Bakker in 1992.

Messner was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, and she suffered with the disease for over a decade before dying of the disease in 2007.

1942–1959: Early life

Tamara Faye LaValley of International Falls, Minnesota, was born to Pentecostal preachers Rachel Minnie (née Fairchild; 1919-1992) and Carl Oliver LaValley.

In 1941, her parents were married. A difficult divorce pitched her mother against other ministers shortly after she was born, alienating her from the church. Both of her parents were married, and her mother, Fred Willard Grover, became a large blended family of which she was the oldest.

She first met Jim Bakker in 1960 while attending North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tammy Faye worked in a boutique for a time before Jim discovered work in a restaurant inside a department store in Minneapolis. They were married on April 1, 1961. They moved to South Carolina next year, where they began their ministry together, Jim preached, while Tammy performed songs and played the accordion. Tammy Sue "Sissy" Bakker, their daughter, was born in 1970 and their son Jamie Charles Bakker was born in 1975.

Jim and Tammy were involved in television from the time they were suspended in Minneapolis to Charlotte, Virginia, where they were founding members of The 700 Club. They were hosts of Jim and Tammy's famous children's show in Portsmouth. On Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), they later developed a puppet ministry for children.

Messner co-founded (with Bakker) The PTL Club (Praise The Lord), a televangelist Christian news service that they first hosted in a derelict furniture store in Charlotte. The series mixed "glitzy entertainment with down-home family values" and preached a "prosperity gospel," which gave the coveted seal of approval on both the growing wealth of American evangelicals and their television ministers' showy lifestyles. Within a year of its establishment, the PTL Club quickly developed to its own network and a corporate venture, grossing $120 million annually in the 1970s. Messner and Bakker established Heritage USA, a Christian retreat and theme park that was ranked alongside Disney World and Disneyland as one of the country's most popular theme parks at the time.

Messner's story was told with a sentimental and emotive twist, and she also performed Christian songs throughout the series. She was also known for her candid discussion of topics that were not taboo amongst many of her Evangelist peers, from penile implants to acceptance and compassion for the LGBT community.

Messner, a homosexual Christian minister with AIDS, talked to Steven Pieters, a member of The PTL Club in the 1980s, during which they discussed his sexuality, coming out, AIDS diagnosis, and the death of his partner. Messner expressed her sadness on the show, saying: "We're so sorry that we as Christians, who are supposed to be the salt of the earth, we are afraid of an AIDS patient that we cannot go up and wrap our arms around them to let them know we care." Messner invited drug users to join Christ and demonstrate compassion and pray for the sick, and also welcomed heroin addicts into the show to talk about substance abuse during the AIDS epidemic. Messner had been diagnosed with a prescription drug dependence in 1987, according to the newspaper.

The Reverend Mel White, Messner's companion, spoke out about her appearance on The PTL Club:

After finding that PTL had been paid to buy Jessica Hahn's silence, the Bakkers' PTL's control of PTL ended in 1987. Jim Bakker allegedly assaulted her. Bakker's 1997 book, I Was Wrong, ridicules Hahn's account, claiming that he was "set up" and that their sex was consensual. The revelations prompted scrutiny of the Bakkers' lives and allegations surrounding their opulent lives, including media reports of an air-conditioned doghouse in Tega Cay, South Carolina, lakefront parsonage, and gold-plated bathroom fixtures, which dominated newscasts in the 1980s. When asked about her money, Messner told reporters in 1986: "We don't get what Johnny Carson makes, and we work a lot harder than him." The couple's Tega Cay home was later sold by the ministry and burned to the ground not long after. In his book I Was Wrong, Bakker claimed that he watched the house burn on live television while incarcerated. PTL's finances and management practices were also exposed by the Charlotte Observer later. PTL went bankrupt after being taken over by Lynchburg, Virginia-based Baptist televangelist Jerry Falwell, who refused to step in following the 1988 scandals.

Messner remained by Bakker through the scandal, including many times when she wept on camera. Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison on 24 fraud and conspiracy charges in 1989 (he served 5 years in prison). Messner applied for divorce in 1992, although Bakker was still in jail, saying in a letter to the New Covenant Church in Orlando, Florida, "I have been pretending that everything is all right, when in reality I was sick all the time." I can't pretend anymore."

After she divorced his own wife, she married property developer Roe Messner in Rancho Mirage, California, on October 3, 1993. They migrated to Matthews, North Carolina, in the Charlotte suburb. Tammy and Roe were neighbors of Christian recording artist and mentor David L Cook. Roe, a contracting firm in Andover, Kansas, had a lot of Heritage USA, as well as several large churches, and had been a family friend of the Bakkers throughout the PTL years. Roe was the one who raised the money for Hahn's $265,000 payment, but PTL was later charged for work on the Jerusalem Amphitheater in Heritage USA. Roe testified in the Bakker's fraud lawsuit, arguing that Falwell sent Messner to the Bakker home in Palm Springs, California, to make an appeal to "keep quiet."

Roe was found guilty of bankruptcy fraud in 1996 after he owed over $30 million to more than 300 creditors in 1990. He said he couldn't afford to worry about prostate cancer because he didn't have health insurance when he was sentenced to prison in 1996. He was sentenced to 27 months in jail and served 27 months in jail.

Messner wrote her autobiography Tammy: Telling It My Way in the same year as well as hosting a television talk show called The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show with Jim J. Bullock.

Messner re-entered the public eye in a series of books, films, and television appearances after her first husband was arrested and later diagnosed with colon cancer.

Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney), a female model who was also known for wearing excessive amounts of makeup, appeared on The Drew Carey Show twice in 1996 and 1999. Messner published a new autobiography, I Will Survive... and You Will, Too! in which she chronicled her battles with cancer and her relationship with Roe Messner.

Tammy Faye (2000), narrated by RuPaul, was the subject of a documentary called The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2004) and a sequel film titled Tammy Faye (2004).

Messner, despite her Christian fundamentalism background, became a gay icon after being exiled from PTL, and she marched with Lady Bunny and Bruce Vilanch. Unlike many American Christian fundamentalists, she "long refused to denounce homosexuals" and expressed sympathy for Americans with HIV/AIDS, which was also a common and unknown disease. "Making an impassioned plea to Christians to love and accept their gay comrades." In her last interview with Larry King, she was generously referred to as "the ultimate drag queen" and "it was the gay people who came to my rescue."

In early 2004, she appeared on the second season of the VH1 reality television series The Surreal Life. The show spanned a twelve-day span in which Trishelle Cannatella, Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice, Traci Bingham, Erik Estrada, Erik Estrada, and Trishelle Cannatella all lived together in a Los Angeles house and were given various jobs and duties.

The six children's play and restaurant management for a day were combined by the six children. I Will Survive... And You Will Too. She also attended a book signing for her best-seller, I Will Survive... And You Will Too.

Messner said she thought of Vanilla Ice and Trishelle Cannatella as her children and understood them deeply because she had similar feelings and problems when they were young.

The Messners moved to Loch Lloyd, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, in July 2007, on more stable financial footing. In 2003, Jim Bakker had relocated his business to Branson, Missouri. According to Entertainment Tonight, she and Roe's children and grandchildren were closer to his children and grandchildren from his first marriage.

Jim Bakker's marriage to him began in 1960-1973; early careers; Jim Bakker, 1964-1973.

When she was a student at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she met Jim Bakker in 1960. Tammy Faye worked in a boutique for a time before Jim discovered work in a restaurant in a Minneapolis department store. They were married on April 1, 1961. They migrated to South Carolina next year, where they began their ministry together; Jim preached, while Tammy sang songs and played the accordion. Tammy Sue "Sissy" Bakker, a 1970-born child, gave birth to her son Jamie Charles Bakker in 1975.

Jim and Tammy were involved with television from the time of their release from Minneapolis to Charlotte, Virginia, where they became founding members of The 700 Club. They appeared on Jim and Tammy's popular children's show in Portsmouth, despite being in Portsmouth. On Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), they created a puppet ministry for children from 1964 to 1973.

Messner co-founded (with Bakker) The PTL Club (Praise The Lord) in 1974, a televangelist Christian news service that they initially operated in a closed furniture store in Charlotte. The series mixed "glitzy entertainment with down-home family values" and preached a "prosperity gospel" that gave the ocular seal of approval on both the growing affluence of evangelicals and their TV ministers' showy lifestyles. The PTL Club grew quickly into its own network and a corporation within a year of its establishment, earning $120 million annually in the 1970s. Messner and Bakker established Heritage USA, a Christian retreat and theme park that was ranked alongside Disney World and Disneyland as one of the country's most popular theme parks.

Messner's stories were also a collection of sentimental and emotive tales, as well as singing Christian songs throughout the series. She was also recognized for her candid discussion of topics that were not considered taboo among many of her Evangelist peers, from penile implants to acceptance and support for the LGBT community.

Messner interviewed Steven Pieters, a gay Christian minister with AIDS, on "Tammy's House Party," a segment of The PTL Club, during which they addressed his sexuality, coming out, diagnosis of AIDS, and his partner's death. Messner's emotional commentary on her program: "How sad that we, Christians, who are supposed to be the salt of the earth, are afraid of an AIDS patient" and that we should not go up and wrap our arm around them and tell them that we care." Messner advised people of the AIDS epidemic to have compassion and pray for the sick, and that heroin users be admitted to the program to talk to them about drug use throughout the epidemic. Messner was reportedly being treated for a prescription drug use in 1987.

The Reverend Mel White, Messner's companion, spoke about her appearance at The PTL Club:

After revelations that $287,000 had been paid to purchase Jessica Hahn's silence, who says Jim Bakker assaulted her, the Bakkers' PTL fell in 1987. Bakker's 1997 book I Was Wrong, Bakker disputed Hahn's account, saying that he was "set up" and that their sex was consensual. The revelations prompted scrutiny of the Bakkers' lives and allegations raised about their opulent lifestyles, including media reports of an air-conditioned doghouse in their Tega Cay, South Carolina, lakefront parsonage, and gold-plated bathroom fixtures, which dominated newscasts in the 1980s. When asked about her money, Messner told reporters in 1986: "We don't get what Johnny Carson makes, and we work a lot harder than him." The couple's Tega Cay home was later sold by the ministry and burned to the ground not long after. While imprisoned, Bakker wrote that he watched the fire on live television while incarcerated. PTL's finances and management practices were then published in the Charlotte Observer. Following the 1988 financial crisis, PTL went bankrupt after being taken over by Lynchburg, Virginia-based Baptist televangelist Jerry Falwell, who promised to step in following the scandals.

Messner defended Bakker through the scandal, including several instances where she cried on camera. Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison for 24 fraud and conspiracy charges in 1989 (he served 5 years in prison). Messner filed for divorce in 1992, when Bakker was still in jail, but he said in a letter to the New Covenant Church in Orlando, Florida, "I've been pretending that everything is all right." "I can't pretend anymore."

She married property developer Roe Messner in Rancho Mirage, California, after he divorced his own wife on October 3, 1993. They migrated to Matthews, North Carolina, where they lived. Tammy and Roe were neighbors of Christian recording artist and mentor David L Cook. Roe, a general contractor with Messner Enterprises in Andover, Kansas, had built much of Heritage USA, as well as several large churches, and had been a family friend of the Bakkers during the PTL years. Roe was the one who raised the money for the $265,000 tribute to Hahn and later paid PTL for work that was not completed on the Jerusalem Amphitheater at Heritage USA. Roe testified against Bakker's claim that Falwell had sent Messner to the Bakker home in Palm Springs, California, to tell him to "keep quiet."

Roe was found guilty of bankruptcy in 1996 after he said he owes over $30 million to over 300 creditors. As he entered prison in 1996, he said he couldn't afford to treat his prostate cancer because he didn't have health insurance. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Messner's autobiography, Tammy: Telling It My Way, debuted in the same year as her co-hosting of The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show with Jim J. Bullock, and she appeared on television talk show The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show also in the United States.

As her first husband was detained and Messner was diagnosed with colon cancer, she re-entered the public eye in a series of books, movies, and television appearances.

Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney), a woman who was also known for wearing excessive amounts of makeup, appeared on The Drew Carey Show twice in 1996 and 1999. Messner's latest autobiography, I Will Survive... and You Will, Too! in which she outlined her fights with cancer and her friendship with Roe Messner, appeared on September 11, 2003.

Tammy Faye, a RuPaul documentary, and a sequel-up film titled Tammy Faye (2004) were the subject of a documentary titled The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Messner, despite her background in Christian fundamentalism, became a gay icon after escaping PTL and being involved in Gay Pride marches with figures such as Lady Bunny and Bruce Vilanch. Unlike many American Christian fundamentalists, she "had long refused to denounce homosexuals" and expressed sympathy for Americans with HIV/AIDS, which included widespread and little understood disease. "Making an impassioned plea to Christians to love and accept their gay brothers and sisters," she interviewed an AIDS patient on their 1980s project. In her last interview with Larry King, she was generously described as "the ultimate drag queen" and "It was the gay people who came to our rescue."

In early 2004, she appeared on the second season of the VH1 reality television series The Surreal Life. The show lasted for a twelve-day period in which she, Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice, Traci Bingham, Erik Estrada, and Trishelle Cannatella all lived together in a Los Angeles house and were given a variety of jobs and duties.

The six children's play and restaurant managed a day together, and they managed a restaurant for a day. I Will Survive... And You Will Too at a book signing for her best-seller, I Will Survive... And You Will Too.

Messner said she liked Vanilla Ice and Trishelle Cannatella as her children and could relate to them deeply because she had similar feelings and issues when they were younger.

The Messners migrated to Loch Lloyd, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, on more stable financial footing in July 2007. In 2003, Jim Bakker moved his operations to Branson, Missouri. She told Entertainment Tonight that they had migrated to the "dream house" to be closer to Roe's children and grandchildren from his first marriage.

1997–2007: Later life and illness

Messner later found she had been diagnosed with colon cancer, and she had returned to the public eye in a series of books, movies, and television appearances as her first husband was released.

Mimi Bobeck, the mother of character Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney), was also known for sporting excessive amounts of makeup, appeared on The Drew Carey Show in 1996 and 1999. Messner's book I Will Survive... and You Will, Too! in which she outlined her struggles with cancer and her friendship with Roe Messner, appeared on September 11, 2003.

Tammy Faye (2000), narrated by RuPaul, and a sequel film titled Tammy Faye (2004) were the subject of a documentary called The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2004).

Messner emerged as a gay icon after being excluded from PTL, appearing in Gay Pride marches with people including Lady Bunny and Bruce Vilanch. Unlike many American Christian fundamentalists, she "had long refused to denounce homosexuals" but had compassion toward, and encouraged Americans with HIV/AIDS, which was still a prevalent and difficult disease. "Menag pleaded with Christians to love and accept their LGBT neighbors in the 1980s," she interviewed an AIDS patient on her website. In her last interview with Larry King, she was benevolently described as "the ultimate drag queen."

She appeared on the second season of the VH1 reality television series The Surreal Life in early 2004. The show lasted for a twelve-day period in which her, Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice, Traci Bingham, Erik Estrada, and Trishelle Cannatella all lived in a Los Angeles home and were given various roles and activities.

The six children's play and then ran a restaurant for a day together. I Will Survive... And You Will Too. She also attended a book signing for her best-seller, I Will Survive... And You Will Too.

Messner said she loved Vanilla Ice and Trishelle Cannatella as her children and could relate to them deeply because she had similar feelings and problems when they were younger.

The Messners relocated to Loch Lloyd, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, on better financial footing in July 2007. In 2003, Jim Bakker had relocated his business to Branson, Missouri. She told Entertainment Tonight that they had moved to "dream house" in order to be closer to Roe's children and grandchildren from his first marriage.

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