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{{short description|American evangelical and singer (1942–2007)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
{{redirect|Tammy Faye|the musical about her life|Tammy Faye (musical){{!}}''Tammy Faye'' (musical)}}
|Name = Tammy Faye Messner
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2013}}
|Img = Tammfaye.jpg|250px]]
{{Infobox person
|Img_capt = Tammy Faye on Larry King Live
|Birth_name = Tamara Faye LaValley | name = Tammy Faye Messner
| image = Tammy Faye Messner.jpg
|Born = {{birth date and age|1942|3|7}}, {{flagicon|USA}} ], ]
| caption = Messner in 2004
|URL =
| birth_name = Tamara Faye LaValley
| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1942|03|7}}
| birth_place = ], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2007|7|20|1942|3|7}}
| death_place = ], U.S.
| occupation = {{hlist|Evangelist|singer|entrepreneur|author|television personality}}
| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|]|1961|1992|reason=divorced}}|{{marriage|]<br>|1993}}}}
| years_active = 1962–2007
| children = 2, including ]
}} }}
'''Tamara "Tammy" Faye LaValley Bakker Messner''' (born ], ]) is a ], ], ], ], ] ], and a prominent ] ]. She is the former wife of ], and later convicted ], ], and she co-hosted with him on '']'', from 1976 to 1987. She is best known for her tendency to wear extremely heavy makeup, particularly ] and false ]; for ]; and for the infidelity (see ]) and financial scandals of her former husband. More recently, she is well-known for her appearance on the highly-rated ], '']'', as a participant in ].<ref>http://www.tv.com/surreal-life/show/12331/summary.html</ref>


'''Tamara Faye Messner''' (née '''LaValley''', formerly '''Bakker''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|eɪ|k|ər}}; March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American evangelist. She co-founded the televangelist program '']'' with her husband ] in 1974.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.distractify.com/fyi/2019/01/17/ZKzKe3bie/where-are-jim-and-tammy-faye-bakker-now|title=30 Years Later, a Look Back at Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Scandal-Filled Ministry|website=Distractify|date=January 17, 2019|language=en|access-date=2019-07-08}}</ref> They had hosted their own puppet-show series for local programming in the early 1960s; Messner also had a career as a recording artist.<ref name=":0" /> In 1978, she and Bakker built ], a Christian theme park.<ref name=":0" />
==Early life==
The eldest of eight children, Bakker was born '''Tamara Faye LaValley''' in ] to ] preachers Carl and Rachel Fairchild LaValley. Her parents were married in ], just one year before Tammy Faye was born. Shortly after she was born, a painful divorce spoiled her mother upon other ministers, therefore, removing her mother from the church. After the divorce, she continued living in a strict atmosphere with her mother and brother. When she was six years old, in 1948, her mother married Fred Grover, who worked in the paper mills. Her stepfather's salary increased their wealth, but also added four children to the household.


During her career Messner was noted for her eccentric and glamorous persona, as well as for moral views that diverged from those of many mainstream evangelists, particularly her advocacy for ] persons and reaching out to ] patients at the height of the AIDS epidemic.<ref name=pop>{{cite web|work=]|title=Tammy Faye Never Understood What That Whole Gay Thing Was About|last=Abernethy|first=Michael|date=July 18, 2010|url=https://www.popmatters.com/127749-the-lesson-of-tammy-faye-2496171799.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1|access-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref><ref name=nbc>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19899883/ns/us_news-faith/t/through-it-all-tammy-faye-never-wavered/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215209/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19899883/ns/us_news-faith/t/through-it-all-tammy-faye-never-wavered/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 25, 2018|work=NBC News|date=July 22, 2007|title=Through it all, Tammy Faye never wavered|author=Johnson, M. Alex|access-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref> She released three autobiographies during her lifetime, ''I Gotta Be Me'' in 1978,<ref> Goodreads accessed 2/12/2022</ref> ''Tammy: Telling it My Way'' in 1996, and ''I Will Survive and You Will Too!'' in 2003.<ref> accessed 2-12-2021</ref>
As a child in the ]s, she helped her mother with household chores and baby sat her younger siblings. Despite all this, she was often spoiled by her favorite aunt, Virginia Fairchild, who was a retired department store manager. She attended her aunt's church in 1952.


Jim Bakker was indicted, convicted, and imprisoned on numerous counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, resulting in the dissolution of ''The PTL Club''.<ref name=":0" /> She divorced Bakker in 1992, while he was in prison, and married ].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article200298814.html|title=What happened to Tammy Faye Bakker after the PTL scandal?|last=Iii|first=David T. Foster|website=charlotteobserver|language=en|access-date=2019-07-08}}</ref> She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, from which she suffered intermittently for over a decade before dying of the disease in 2007.<ref name=":1" />
When she was accompanied by a friend to the ] church, at age 10, she said she felt the glow of God's love and wanted to call herself upon the ]. Her entire family even gathered around her for celebrations, particularly Christmas, which is her favorite holiday. In 1956, she started spending summers at Bible camp and was voted "Queen". That same year, she attended Falls High School where she sang in the ]. Also that same year, she got an after-school job working at ] Department Store, the same store in which her aunt had previously worked. She was not allowed to attend any school dances, baseball games, or even the ]s, as her church wouldn't allow it. Before she graduated in 1960, her mother suggested that Tammy Faye would become a ].


==Biography==
After being expelled from North Central Bible College along with her then husband (a former high school ]) ] in early 1961, she worked in a boutique shop for a time while Jim found work in a restaurant inside a department store in Minneapolis. The following year, they moved to ], where they began their own ministry.
===1942–1959: Early life===
She was born '''Tamara Faye LaValley''' in ], to ] preachers Rachel Minnie (] Fairchild; 1919–1992) and Carl Oliver LaValley,<ref></ref> who married in 1941. Shortly after she was born, a painful divorce soured her mother against ministers,<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Tammy Faye Messner|work=]|volume=47|number=317|date=July 23, 2007|page=23}}</ref> alienating her from the church. Both of her parents remarried, her mother to Fred Willard Grover, forming a large blended family, of which she was the eldest.<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=Tammy Faye Bakker, 65, Emotive Evangelist, Dies|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627125713/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22bakker.html|archive-date=June 27, 2018|url-status=bot: unknown|last=Gates|first=Anita|date=July 22, 2007|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22bakker.html|access-date=June 26, 2018|df=mdy-all}} {{closed access}}</ref>


===1960–1973: Marriage to Jim Bakker; early work===
==PTL Club and Scandal==
In 1960, she met ] while they were students at ] in ], Minnesota.<ref name=welch>{{cite web|work=USA Today|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-21-tammy-faye_N.htm|title=Ex-wife of evangelist Jim Bakker dies|author=Welch, William M.|date=July 21, 2007|access-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref> Tammy Faye worked in a boutique for a time while Jim found work in a restaurant inside a department store in Minneapolis. They were married on April 1, 1961. The next year, they moved to ], where they began their ministry together, initially traveling around the United States; Jim preached, while Tammy Faye sang songs and played the ].<ref name=nyt/> In 1970, she gave birth to their daughter Tammy Sue "Sissy" Bakker, and in 1975 gave birth to their son ].
Jim and Tammy Bakker had been involved with television from their departure from Minneapolis, until they moved to the Charlotte area, via ], where they were founding members of the ]. They then created a puppet ministry for children on ]'s ] (CBN) from 1964 to 1973, and co-founded the ] with personal friends ] and ] in ]. Jim and Tammy, along with ], founded the ] in the mid-1970s.


Jim and Tammy Faye had been involved with television from the time of their departure from Minneapolis until they moved to the ] area via ], where they were founding members of '']''.<ref name=camhi/><ref name=nyt/> While in Portsmouth, they were hosts of the popular children's show ''Jim and Tammy''. They then created a puppet ministry for children on ]'s ] (CBN), which ran from 1964 to 1973.<ref name=camhi/>
During the PTL shows, she provided a sentimental touch to stories and loved to sing. In a move that sharply distinguished her from other televangelists, she showed a more tolerant attitude when it came to ], and she featured people living with ] on PTL, urging her viewers to follow Christ and show sympathy and pray for the sick.


===1974–1987: ''The PTL Club''===
The ] empire continued to grow under the Bakkers' leadership, but the concern about their opulent lifestyle grew as media reports of an ] ] at their ] lakefront parsonage as well as gold-plated bathroom fixtures dominated newscasts in the 1980s. The Bakkers' home, owned by the ministry, was actually an older home built in the early 1970s and it was a few miles away from Heritage USA. Jim Bakker stated that the much-talked-about dog house was heated with an old heater to keep the dogs warm in the winter and the reported gold-plated fixtures were actually brass. The home was later sold by the ministry and burned to the ground not long thereafter. Jim Bakker wrote in his book ''I Was Wrong'' that he watched the home burn on live television while incarcerated.
Jim and Tammy Faye co-founded '']'' (Praise The Lord) in 1974, a ] Christian news program that they initially hosted in an abandoned furniture store in Charlotte.<ref name=camhi>{{cite web|work=]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/aug/04/culture.features2|title=Televangelist Tammy Faye Messner is being reborn as a gay icon|date=August 4, 2000|access-date=June 27, 2018|last=Camhi|first=Leslie}}</ref> The series mixed "glitzy entertainment with down-home family values" and preached a {{"'}}prosperity gospel' which put a divine seal of approval on both the growing affluence of American evangelicals and the showy lifestyles of their television ministers."<ref name=camhi/> ''The PTL Club'' soon grew into its own network and a corporate enterprise within a year of its founding, generating $120 million annually in the 1970s.<ref name=camhi/> In 1978, the Bakkers used $200 million of PTL funds to build ], a Christian retreat and ] that, at the time, ranked alongside ] and ] as one of the most popular theme parks in the United States.<ref name=camhi/>


Throughout the series, Tammy Faye provided a sentimental and emotive touch to stories,<ref name=nyt/> and also often sang Christian songs.<ref name=camhi/> She was also noted for her candid discussion of topics considered ] amongst many of her Evangelist peers, ranging from ]s to acceptance and compassion for the ] community.<ref name=camhi/>
However, due to Jim Bakker's resignation from the ministry after an affair with ] became public, as well as investigative reporters from the '']'' reporting on PTL's finances and management, ] went bankrupt after being taken over by controversial ]-based Baptist televangelist ], who offered to step in following the scandals in 1988. <ref>{{cite news | first=Richard | last=Ostling | coauthors= | title=Enterprising Evangelism | date=1987-8-03 | publisher= | url =http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,965155,00.html | work =Time | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-27 | language = }}</ref>


At the height of the ] in the mid-1980s, she conducted an emotional interview with Steven Pieters, a ] Christian minister with ] on "Tammy's House Party," a segment of ''The PTL Club'', during which they discussed his sexuality, ], diagnosis with AIDS, and the death of his partner.<ref name=pieters>{{cite interview|last=Pieters|first=Steve|interviewer=Tammy Faye Bakker|title=Tammy's House Party: Interview with Steven Peters|date=1985|work=The PTL Club}} {{YouTube|GjXXdQ6VceQ}}.</ref> During the program, Tammy Faye addressed her viewership, saying: "How sad that we as Christians, who are to be the salt of the earth, we who are supposed to be able to love everyone, are afraid so badly of an AIDS patient that we will not go up and put our arm around them and tell them that we care."<ref name=pieters/> Throughout the AIDS epidemic, she advocated for viewers of ''The PTL Club'' to follow Christ and show compassion and pray for the ill,<ref name=Tsai2007/> and also invited drug addicts onto the show to interview them about substance abuse.<ref name=camhi/> In 1987, it was reported that Tammy Faye was herself being treated for a prescription drug addiction.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Perkinson|first1=Sharon|title=Tammy Bakker admits to drug addiction|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/03/07/Tammy-Bakker-admits-to-drug-addiction/7554542091600/|date=March 7, 1987|work=UPI|access-date=November 5, 2019}}</ref>
It was widely reported that Falwell's interest in PTL and Heritage USA was solely an attempt to gain control of its profitable cable television network; something which Falwell was unsuccessful in establishing for his own ministry despite numerous requests to the FCC for permission to obtain a satellite license.


Bakker's friend, the Reverend ], commented on her presence on ''The PTL Club'':
==After PTL==
{{cquote|Her fans were people who grew up in a very fundamentalist tradition, not being able to wear make-up, or dance, or go out in public. So here comes Tammy, with her dyed hair and make-up, her ebullient spirit and outspoken ways with both men and women. She talked about sex, and flirted with Jimmy. She took on the caricature of an obedient wife, and blasted it. You have never seen ]'s wife, or ]'s wife. They stay at home, doing what those wives do.<ref name=camhi/>}}
In 1993, Tammy Faye married former Heritage USA contractor and church builder ]. She now uses the name '''Tammy Faye Messner''' and resides in the Charlotte, NC suburb of ]. Her husband was diagnosed with ] years ago, but has chosen not to seek traditional ] and ] treatments in favor of a "watchful waiting" approach. In 1996, she co-hosted another TV talk show entitled ''The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show'', with ], an ] and openly ] actor. The syndicated show ended when Tammy chose to leave after being diagnosed with ].


===1988–1995: Collapse of ''The PTL Club'' and aftermath===
In recent years, she was the subject of a ] entitled '''The Eyes of Tammy Faye''' (]) and a follow up film entitled '''Tammy Faye: Death Defying''' (]) from ]. She has also appeared on '']'', playing the mother of character ''Mimi Bobek'' (]), who was also known for wearing excessive amounts of makeup. In 2005, she appeared in an infomercial for controversial medicinal advice author ], an appearance she later admitted that she regretted.
{{Main|Jim Bakker#Controversy}}
The Bakkers' control of PTL collapsed in 1987 after revelations that $287,000 had been paid from the organization to buy the silence of ],<ref name="pay" /> who claims ] raped her.<ref name="cnntranscript">{{cite news |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/14/lkl.01.html |title=Larry King Live Interview with Jessica Hahn (rush transcript) |work=CNN|date=July 14, 2005 |access-date=July 29, 2007}}</ref> In his 1997 book, ''I Was Wrong'', Jim Bakker disputed Hahn's account, claiming that he was "set up" and that their sex was consensual.{{sfn|Bakker|1997|p=512}} The revelations invited scrutiny of the Bakkers, and charges made about their opulent lives, including media reports of an air-conditioned doghouse at their ], lakefront parsonage as well as gold-plated bathroom fixtures, dominated newscasts in the 1980s. When asked about her income, Tammy Faye told reporters in 1986: "We don't get what ] makes, and we work a lot harder than him."<ref name=rapid>{{cite web|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/16/us/for-jim-and-tammy-bakker-excess-wiped-out-a-rapid-climb-to-success.html|date=May 16, 1987|title=For Jim and Tammy Bakker, Excess Wiped Out a Rapid Climb to Success |author=Schmidt, William E.|access-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref> The couple's Tega Cay home was later sold by the ministry and burned to the ground not long thereafter. Jim wrote in his book ''I Was Wrong'' that he watched the home burn on live television while incarcerated.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bakker|first=Jim|author-link=Jim Bakker |title=I Was Wrong: The Untold Story of the Shocking Journey from PTL Power to Prison and Beyond |publisher=Thomas Nelson |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7852-7136-9 }}</ref> The '']'' subsequently ran exposés of PTL's finances and management practices. PTL went bankrupt after being taken over by ]-based Baptist televangelist ], who offered to step in following the scandals in 1988.<ref>{{cite news | first=Richard | last=Ostling | title=Enterprising Evangelism | date=August 3, 1987 | url =http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,965155,00.html | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070212091610/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0%2C8816%2C965155%2C00.html | url-status =dead | archive-date =February 12, 2007 | magazine =Time | access-date = January 27, 2007 }}</ref>


Tammy Faye stood by Jim Bakker through the scandal, including several instances when she cried on camera. In 1989, Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison on 24 fraud and conspiracy counts (he served 5). In 1992, while Jim was in prison, Tammy Faye filed for divorce, saying in a letter to the New Covenant Church in ]: "For years I have been pretending that everything is all right, when in fact I hurt all the time... I cannot pretend anymore."<ref name=hartsoe>{{cite news|title=Tammy Faye Messner Dies at 65|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200034_pf.html|author=Hartsoe, Steve|date=July 22, 2007|publisher=Associated Press|newspaper=]|access-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref>
=== The Surreal Life ===
In early 2004, she appeared on the second season of the ] ] series, '']''. The show chronicled a twelve-day period when she, ] star ], ] ], '']'' ] ], '']'' ] ] and ] from '']'' all lived together in a ] house and were assigned various bizarre tasks and activities.


On October 3, 1993, she married property developer ] in ], after he divorced his first wife. They moved to the Charlotte suburb of ].<ref name=":1" /> Tammy Faye and Roe were neighbors to Christian recording star and friend David L Cook.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22bakker.html|title=Tammy Faye Bakker, 65, Emotive Evangelist, Dies|last=Gates|first=Anita|date=2007-07-22|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-06|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Roe, who had a contracting business, Messner Enterprises in ], had built much of Heritage USA as well as many large churches and had been a family friend to the Bakkers throughout the PTL years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jul/24/guardianobituaries.usa|title=Obituary: Tammy Faye Messner|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=2007-07-24|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-07-06|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Roe was the one who produced the money for the $265,000 payment to Hahn, later billing PTL for work never completed on the Jerusalem Amphitheater at ].<ref name="pay">Testimony: Baker knew about Hahn being paid off – Associated Press article via Pacific Stars and Stripes – September 16, 1987.</ref> In the Bakkers' fraud trial, Roe Messner testified for Bakker's defense, saying that Bakker had no knowledge of the payment to Jessica Hahn, and that Falwell had sent him to the Bakker home in ], to offer generous compensation "if he kept his mouth shut."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nowell |first=Paul |title=Falwell Disputes Builder's Testimony Over Hush Money |url=https://apnews.com/89df03e72ad79f48009ea2d51e141b02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604155040/https://apnews.com/89df03e72ad79f48009ea2d51e141b02 |archive-date=2023-06-04 |access-date=2019-07-08 |website=AP News}}</ref>
Together, the six put on a children's play, visited a ] resort (without her), managed a restaurant for a day, and got readings from a ] (also without her). During the taping, she forged close bonds with all of the other six house mates, many of whom came to look up to her as a mother figure and a spiritual inspiration.


=== 1996–2007: Later life and illness ===
She also attended a ] for her recent best-seller, ''I Will Survive... And You Will Too''. Her book signing brought people of all ages, from all walks of life; including ]s, ]s, ]s and religious followers.
In 1996, Roe Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud, having claimed to owe nearly $30 million to over 300 creditors in 1990. As he faced sentencing in 1996, he said he could not afford to treat his prostate cancer because he lacked health insurance.<ref name="roe">{{cite web|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/21/style/chronicle-018600.html|title=Chronicle|date=March 21, 1996|author=Louie, Elaine|access-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref> He was sentenced to and served 27 months in prison.<ref name="nyt" />


With her first husband fresh out of jail and her current partner now serving his sentence, Tammy Faye was diagnosed with ] in 1996, and she re-entered the public eye in a series of books, movies, and television appearances.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |title=Tammy Faye Messner, PTL queen, dies of cancer |url=https://www.dailynews.com/2007/07/22/tammy-faye-messner-ptl-queen-dies-of-cancer/ |access-date=6 January 2022 |work=Los Angeles Daily News |date=22 July 2007}}</ref> That year she published her autobiography, ''Tammy: Telling It My Way'', and co-hosted a TV talk show titled ''The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show'' with ].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115225/|website=IMDb|access-date=May 5, 2017}}</ref>
She made an impassioned plea for all people to grant themselves permission to cast off the things that are holding them back, to forgive themselves and others, to be happy with themselves whoever they are, to persevere in the face of opposition, and to show each other unconditional love. Her speech moved the four roommates who were present (Jeremy stayed home) to tears; Bingham later confessed that it had been a life-altering moment for her.


She appeared twice on '']'' in ] and 1999, playing the mother of character ] (]), who was also known for wearing excessive amounts of makeup.<ref>{{cite web|author=Dicker, Ron|date=August 24, 2000|url=https://www.courant.com/2000/08/24/the-eyes-of-tammy-faye/|title=The Eyes Of Tammy Faye|work=Hartford Courant|access-date=January 3, 2018|archive-date=January 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104075847/http://articles.courant.com/2000-08-24/features/0008242248_1_l-oreal-mascara-eyes-of-tammy-faye-ptl|url-status=live}}</ref> On September 11, 2003, Messner published a new autobiography, ''I Will Survive... and You Will, Too!'', in which she described her battles with cancer<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mesner |first1=Tammy Faye |title=I Will Survive and You Will Too! |year= 2003 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-14408-4 |chapter=Patty Goes Home |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3bm6L3ZR2CYC&q=cancer |access-date=6 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref> and her life with Roe Messner.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mesner |first1=Tammy Faye |title=I Will Survive and You Will Too! |year= 2003 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-14408-4 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3bm6L3ZR2CYC&q=roe+messner |language=en}}</ref>
At the end of the show, Messner said she thought of Vanilla Ice and Trishelle Cannatella as children and could relate to them deeply because she had had similar feelings and problems when she had been their age. Though Messner disapproved of Ron Jeremy's profession, she also stated that he was one of the nicest and most gentlemanly people she had ever met.


She was the subject of a documentary titled '']'' (2000), narrated by ],<ref name=camhi/> and a follow-up film titled ''Tammy Faye: Death Defying'' (2004).<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Harvey |first=Dennis |date=4 July 2005 |title=Tammy Faye: Death Defying |url=https://variety.com/2005/film/reviews/tammy-faye-death-defying-1200524740/#! |magazine=] |publisher=Penske Media Corporation |access-date=6 January 2022}}</ref>
===Cancer===
On ] ], Tammy Faye, a colon cancer survivor, announced on '']'' (broadcast on ]) that she had inoperable ] and would soon begin chemotherapy. However, on ] ], also on '']'', she claimed that she was cancer free. She described details of her chemotherapy and continued to appear regularly on King's show. It was on his program that she announced, on ] ], that her cancer had returned. <ref>http://www.greenwichtime.com/entertainment/tv/sns-ap-people-tammy-faye,0,1472145.story?coll=sns-ap-tv-headlines</ref>


Despite her background in ], Messner became a gay icon after parting from PTL, appearing in ] marches with figures such as ] and ]. Unlike many American Christian fundamentalists, she "had long refused to denounce homosexuals" and publicly expressed compassion toward, and urged support for Americans with HIV/AIDS when it was still a much-feared and unknown disease.<ref name=Tsai2007>Michelle Tsai. , Slate.com July 23, 2007; accessed 03 Jan 2018</ref><ref>Ann Hornaday, , Baltimore Sun, accessed 03 July 2018</ref> She was benevolently referred to as "the ultimate drag queen,"<ref name="tfbakker">{{cite news |last=Wilson-Smith |first=Anthony |title=Tammy Faye's Fab Fan Club |work=] |page=7 |date=May 22, 2000}}</ref> and said in her last interview with ] that, "When I went{{snd}}when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that."<ref name="tfbakker2">{{cite news |last=Rabey |first=Steve |title=Tammy Faye, gay icon |work=] |pages=85–86 |date=October 2, 2000}}</ref>
On ], ], just six days after her 64th birthday, she appeared again on a ''Larry King Live'' broadcast on ] and stated that she was suffering from stage 4 lung cancer and was continuing treatment for it. She also mentioned having difficulty swallowing food, suffering ]s, and substantial weight loss. A "Talk of the Town" item in the ] ] issue of '']'' stated that she was dying in ]. A ] ] item in Walter Scott's column in '']'' reported her son Jay was "at a North Carolina hospice with his mom, gravely ill with colon cancer" <ref></ref>.


In early 2004, she appeared on the second season of the ] reality television series '']''. The show chronicled a twelve-day period wherein she, ], ], ], ], and ] lived together in a Los Angeles house and were assigned various tasks and activities.<ref name=surreal>{{cite magazine|url=http://ew.com/article/2004/01/12/meet-cast-surreal-life/|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|title=Meet the cast of The Surreal Life|date=January 12, 2004|access-date=June 27, 2018|author=Hiatt, Brian}}</ref> Together, the six put on a children's play and managed a restaurant for a day. She also attended a ] for her best-seller, ''I Will Survive... And You Will Too''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Remembering Tammy Faye |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/remembering-tammy-faye/ |access-date=6 January 2022 |work=www.cbsnews.com |publisher=CBS Corporation}}</ref>
Tammy Faye was a guest by phone on Larry King Live on ] ] and stated that she was receiving hospice care in her home. Her son, ], revealed that his mother's weight was down to 68 pounds. <ref>http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06120084.htm</ref>


At the end of the show, Messner said she thought of Vanilla Ice and Trishelle Cannatella as her children and could relate to them deeply because she had similar feelings and problems when she was their age.
Tammy Faye appeared in her son, Jay's documentary series, ], where she and Jay talked about her cancer treatments. In the episode Tammy Faye required the use of oxygen just to talk.


In July 2007, on more solid financial footing, the Messners relocated to ], a suburb of ]. Jim Bakker had relocated his operations to ], in 2003. She told '']'' they had moved to the "dream house" to be closer to Roe's children and grandchildren from his first marriage.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626002459/http://www.charlotte.com/115/story/170349.html |date=June 26, 2007 }}</ref>
===Involvement with the IRS===
The '']'' reported that the ] still holds Bakker and ], her husband since 1993, liable for personal income taxes owed from the 1980s when they were building the Praise The Lord empire, taxes assessed after the IRS revoked the ] ministry's nonprofit status.


==Death==
Messner said Jim Bakker and his former wife didn't want to talk about the tax issues: "We don't want to stir the pot." He also said that the original tax amount was about $500,000, with penalties and interest accounting for the rest. The notices reinstating the ]s list "James O. and Tamara F. Bakker" as owing $3 million, which liens the Bakkers must still pay.
Messner's 11 years with cancer were highly publicized. She was first diagnosed with ] in March 1996, but later revealed she had endured bleeding for a year out of embarrassment at the prospect of seeing a male doctor.<ref name=":2" /> The disease went into remission by the end of that year.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/tammy-faye-messners-cancer-treatments-stop-weight-down-to-just-65-pounds |title=Tammy Faye Messner's Cancer Treatments Stop, Weight Down to Just 65 Pounds |work=Fox News |date=May 10, 2007}}</ref>


In March 2004, Messner made an appearance on '']'' and announced that she had inoperable lung cancer and would soon begin chemotherapy.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2004/US/03/18/tammy.faye.cancer/ |title=Tammy Faye diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer |work=CNN |date=March 19, 2004 |access-date=June 2, 2021}}</ref> She continued to receive chemotherapy throughout mid-2004. In November 2004, also on ''Larry King Live'', she announced that she was cancer-free once again. She described the details of her chemotherapy and continued to appear regularly on King's show.<ref name="WhatHappened">{{cite news |last=Funk |first=Tim |url=https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article200298814.html |title=What happened to Tammy Faye Bakker after the PTL scandal? |work=The Charlotte Observer |date=February 15, 2018}}</ref>
==Tammy Faye in popular culture==
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker are referred to in ]'s song, ''Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk'', from the ] tour of 1988, and released post-PTL scandal in 1989. Zappa's song lampoons and castigates evangelical television ministries of that era, and the ] Club was a prime target.


A television documentary of her struggle with cancer was produced in 2004.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/evangelist-tammy-faye-messner-dies-of-cancer-at-65 |title=Evangelist Tammy Faye Messner Dies of Cancer at 65 |work=Fox News |date=July 22, 2007}}</ref> It was on King's program again that she announced in July 2005 that her cancer had returned.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title = Tammy Faye Says Lung Cancer Has Returned |publisher = Greenwich Time |date = July 20, 2005 |url = http://www.greenwichtime.com/entertainment/tv/sns-ap-people-tammy-faye,0,1472145.story?coll=sns-ap-tv-headlines |access-date = May 10, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080415072018/http://www.greenwichtime.com/entertainment/tv/sns-ap-people-tammy-faye,0,1472145.story?coll=sns-ap-tv-headlines <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = April 15, 2008}}</ref> In a March 2006 appearance on the show, she said she was continuing to suffer from lung cancer, which had reached ], and that she was continuing to receive treatment for it. She also mentioned having difficulty swallowing food, suffering from ]s, and enduring substantial weight loss. As her health continued to worsen, a "Talk of the Town" article in an October 2006 issue of '']'' stated that she was dying in ], and a December 2006 article in Walter Scott's column in '']'' reported that her son Jay was "at a North Carolina hospice with his mom, gravely ill with colon cancer".<ref>{{cite news | author=Walter Scott | title=Personality Parade | url=http://parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_12-10-2006/Personality_Parade | publisher=Parade | date=December 10, 2006 | access-date=July 25, 2007}}</ref>
] writer ] allegedly based her character 'Serena Joy' in the novel '']'' loosely on Tammy Faye Bakker {{Fact|date=January 2007}}--


Messner was a guest by phone on ''Larry King Live'' in December 2006, and said that she was receiving hospice care in her home. She appeared in her son Jay's documentary series '']'', wherein they talked about her cancer treatments. In one episode, she required the use of oxygen in order to talk.
Tammy Faye's background includes Canadian ancestery, as ] is located near her hometown of International Falls on the Canadian side of the ].


In May 2007, she issued a statement on her website saying that chemotherapy had stopped, and she urged her fans to continue to pray for her.<ref>{{cite web | author=Tammy Faye Messner | title=Message to fans | url=http://www.tammyfaye.com/note20070508.htm | website=TammyFaye.com | date=May 10, 2007 | access-date=July 25, 2007 | archive-date=March 11, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311025805/http://www.tammyfaye.com/note20070508.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The story was reported on ]'s '']'', and a feature in which fans and well-wishers could post get-well messages to Tammy was added to her website.<ref>{{cite web | title=Well Wishes for Tammy Faye's | url=http://www.tammyfaye.com/wellwishes.asp | website=TammyFaye.com | access-date=July 25, 2007 | archive-date=July 21, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070721010120/http://www.tammyfaye.com/wellwishes.asp | url-status=dead }}</ref>
In 2005 she was honored by ] with a '''Tammy Faye Day''' on ] ].


On July 18, 2007, Messner made her final appearance on ''Larry King Live''. At the time, she said she weighed 65 pounds (29.5&nbsp;kg) and was unable to eat solid food. Messner's husband later said that he believed she chose to do the interview to say a final goodbye to her fans.<ref name="WhatHappened" />
Tammy Faye Bakker has developed a devoted fan base in the ] and ] communities. A drag entertainer dubbed "Tammy Faye Sinclair" performs in the ], ], and ] areas.


Two days later, on July 20, 2007, Messner died at her home in ], near Kansas City, Missouri, after an eleven-year bout with cancer. She was 65 years old.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gaines |first=Anita |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22bakker.html |title=Tammy Faye Bakker, 65, Emotive Evangelist, Dies |work=The New York Times |date=July 22, 2007}}</ref> A family service was held on the morning of July 21, at the Messner family plot in ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0708/07/lkl.01.html |title=Miners Trapped in Utah; Roe Messner Interview |work=CNN |date=August 7, 2007}}</ref> The ceremony was officiated by Rev. Randy McCain, the pastor of Open Door Community Church in ].<ref>{{cite news |last=Stone |first=Andrea |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3404398&page=1 |title=Tributes Pour In For Tammy Faye Messner |work=ABC News |date=July 23, 2007 |access-date=June 2, 2021}}</ref> According to CNN, the family requested that King officially report the news of her death.<ref name="CNN">{{cite news | title=Tammy Faye Messner dies | url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/21/tammy.faye/index.html?section=cnn_latest | work=CNN | date=July 21, 2007 | access-date=July 25, 2007}}</ref> Her remains were cremated and her ashes were returned to Waldron Cemetery where they were subsequently buried.<ref>{{cite news |title=Public Memorial Planned For Tammy Faye |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/public-memorial-planned-for-tammy-faye/ |work=CBS News |date=July 21, 2007}}</ref>
In 1985, she was mentioned by the ] band ] during their ''Jim and Tammy Bakker Fundraising Tour'' on the tour ] that stated ''If we don't sell all our singles, God will kill us!'' Her image was also used on the ] album, '']''.


==In popular culture==
The chorus of the ] hit '']'' includes the line ''Tammy Bakker must be losing her faith, yeah''.
In June 2006, a ] titled ''The Gospel According to Tammy Faye'' opened at the ] and was subsequently developed as a larger professional production. The show features songs by ] and a book by Fernando Dovalina. The musical is described as a ] which takes a balanced and fair look at its subject. The impetus for the show was provided by a lengthy interview that Messner gave the authors in March 2005.<ref>'Gospel According to Tammy Faye' New Musical Reading", ''Broadway World News'', December 5, 2007.</ref><ref name="lw">Lindsay Wise, "On stage, Tammy Faye lives on: Musical creators say show is a good way to say goodbye", ''Houston Chronicle'', July 22, 2007.</ref> The musical aired in August 2006 in ] and ], and it was presented on stage at ]'s ] at the end of July 2007 under direction of Les R. Wood. Industry readings presented by the Columbia Gorge Repertory Company were held at the Manhattan Theatre Club in December 2007, the cast including Tony nominee ] and veteran Broadway performers William Youmans, Ken Land, Julie Foldesi, James T. Lane and Heather Parcells. The readings were directed by Mindy Cooper. Seth Farber provided musical direction.


Another musical following her life, titled ''Big Tent'', debuted in May 2007, at ]'s ], in New York City. The show features music and lyrics by Ben Cohn and Sean McDaniel, a book by ], and direction by ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/New-Musical-Big-Tent-Covers-Life-of-Tammy-Faye-Bakker-20061116|title=New Musical 'Big Tent' Covers Life of Tammy Faye Bakker|work=Broadway World|access-date=January 18, 2019}}</ref> A star-studded concert of songs from the show opened in February 2008, at New York's Metropolitan Room.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080127110927/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/114554.html |date=January 27, 2008 }}</ref>
In June 2006, a ] entitled ''The Gospel According to Tammy Faye'' opened at the ] ], and is currently being developed for a larger professional production]. The show features songs by ] and a book by ]. The musical is described as a ] which takes a balanced and fair look at its subject. The impetus for the show was provided by a lengthy interview Messner gave the authors in March 2005. The musical appeared in August 2006 ], and ].


A play about her final hours, ''Tammy Faye's Final Audition'' by Merri Biechler, premiered at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in June 2015. The play takes place in a fevered dream at the end of her life, wherein she enlists the men in her life for one final TV talk show audition.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Epple |first1=Aaron |title=Cincinnati Fringe Festival returns for its 12th year |url=http://www.journal-news.com/news/events/cincinnati-fringe-festival-returns-for-its-12th-ye/nmJ7w/ |website=] |location=Liberty Township, Butler County, Ohio |access-date=July 7, 2016 |archive-date=August 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817192501/http://www.journal-news.com/news/events/cincinnati-fringe-festival-returns-for-its-12th-ye/nmJ7w/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Another musical following the life of Ms. Bakker, entitled ''Big Tent'', is currently being developed for a debut in the summer of 2007 in ]. The show features music and lyrics by ] ], a book by ], and direction by ].


A musical about the life of ], ''Born for This'', debuted on June 25, 2018, at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker appear as supporting characters who give BeBe and his sister ] their first big break as singers on '']''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Aucoin |first1=Don |title=Stage Review: A spirited but flawed 'Born for This' |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2018/06/25/spirited-but-flawed-born-for-this/fT25J6T06s23TKPJyPTE4M/story.html |website=] |access-date=July 23, 2018}}</ref>
===Personal life===
Jim and Tammy Bakker were ] from 1961 until 1992. They met as students at ] in ].


At one time, Broadway actress ] was planning a musical based on Messner's life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.playbill.com/article/kristin-chenoweth-on-why-shes-bringing-the-story-of-tammy-faye-bakker-to-the-stage|author=Logan Culwell-Block|title=Kristin Chenoweth on Why She's Bringing the Story of Tammy Faye Bakker to the Stage|website=]|date=January 18, 2019|access-date=September 3, 2021}}</ref>
They have two children:
* daughter, Tammy Sue Bakker Chapman (b. ] ], who is mother to James and Jonathan)
* son ] (b. ] ]; married to Amanda Bakker).


In the 2021 movie '']'', based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, ] plays Tammy Faye, with ] as Jim. ''The Eyes of Tammy Faye'' opened on September 17, 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2021/06/the-eyes-of-tammy-faye-2021-trailer.html|title=Praise the Lord, We've Got an Eyes of Tammy Faye Trailer|date=June 9, 2021}}</ref> Chastain won a ], a ], and the ].<ref name="Pulver">{{cite news |last=Pulver |first=Andrew |date=27 March 2022 |title=Jessica Chastain wins best actress Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/28/jessica-chastain-wins-best-actress-oscar-for-the-eyes-of-tammy-faye |work=The Guardian |location=London, United Kingdom |access-date=27 March 2022}}</ref>
==Recording career==
Tammy Faye recorded many gospel and religious albums in the 1970s and 1980s while still affiliated with the PTL club. Here is a partial discography:


British playwright ] also wrote the book for a new musical about Tammy Faye, with music by ] and lyrics by ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/dec/31/james-graham-reveals-covid-crisis-accelerated-elton-john-musical-collaboration|title = James Graham reveals Covid crisis accelerated Elton John musical collaboration|website = ]|date = December 31, 2020}}</ref> The musical, titled '']'', opened in October 2022 at the ] in London, directed by ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/aug/23/musical-tammy-faye-tells-gay-icons-life-story-with-score-by-elton-john|title=Musical Tammy Faye tells gay icon's life story with score by Elton John |date=23 August 2022|first=Harriet|last=Sherwood|work=The Guardian}}</ref>
* ''Tammy Faye sings PTL Club Favorites'' (PTL, 1977)

* ''We're Blest'' <nowiki></nowiki> (PTL, 1979)
==Select discography==
* ''Run Toward the Roar'' (PTL / New Leaf Press 197?)
{| class="wikitable"
* ''The Lord's On My Side'' (PTL, 1980)
|-
* ''You Can Make It'' (PTL, 1982)
! Year !! Album !! Record Label
* ''In the Upper Room'' (PTL?, 1984)
|-
* ''Don't Give Up'' (PTL?, 1985)
| 1970 || ''Tammy Tammy Tammy'' || Hymntone Records
* ''Enough is Enough'' (PTL, 1986)
|-
* ''The Ballad of Jim and Tammy'' (PTL?, 1987)
| 1977 || ''Tammy Bakker Sings PTL Club Favorites'' || New Pax Records
|-
| 1978 || ''Love Never Gives Up'' || PAX Musical Productions
|-
| 1979 || ''We're Blest'' || ]
|-
| 1980 || ''Run Toward the Roar'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1980 || ''The Lord's On My Side'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1982 || ''Tammy Sings... You Can Make It!'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1982 || ''Old Hymns'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1984 || ''In the Upper Room'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1984 || ''Movin' on to Victory'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1985 || ''Don't Give Up!'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1986 || ''Enough is Enough'' || PTL Club Records & Tapes
|-
| 1987 || ''The Ballad of Jim & Tammy'' (single) || ]
|-
| 1988 || ''Peace in the Midst of the Storm'' || Wooded Lake Productions
|-
| 1991 || ''Love, Tammy'' || ???
|-
| 1996 || ''Favorite Songs of Inspiration'' || Inphomation Communications, Inc.
|}

==Bibliography==
*''I Gotta Be Me '' (1978), {{ISBN|978-0089221480}}
*''Run to the Roar'' (1985), {{ISBN|978-0892210732}}
*''Tammy: Telling It My Way'' (1996), {{ISBN|9780679445159}}
*''I Will Survive...and You Will Too!'' (2003), {{ISBN|9781585422425}}


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->

<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
==Further reading==
<references/>

</div>
* {{cite book |last1=Bekkering |first1=Denis |title=American Televangelism and Participatory Cultures: Fans, Brands, and Play With Religious "Fakes" |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan}}


==External links== ==External links==
* * at ]
* National Public Radio ''All Things Considered'' June 20, 2002 (Online article with audio of ATC story and video clip of film, ''The Eyes of Tammy Faye'') * , ] ''All Things Considered'', June 20, 2002
* - NPR's Fresh Air, January 15, 2004 * , ] ''Fresh Air'', January 15, 2004
* {{imdb name | id = 0049176}} * {{IMDb name |id = 0049176|name=Tammy Faye Bakker}}
* {{find a Grave|20565033}}
{{PTL scandal}}


{{Authority control}}
==Bibliography==
Bailey, Fenton and Randy Barbato. ''The Eyes of Tammy Faye''. 2000


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Latest revision as of 22:09, 1 November 2024

American evangelical and singer (1942–2007) "Tammy Faye" redirects here. For the musical about her life, see Tammy Faye (musical).

Tammy Faye Messner
Messner in 2004
BornTamara Faye LaValley
(1942-03-07)March 7, 1942
International Falls, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedJuly 20, 2007(2007-07-20) (aged 65)
Loch Lloyd, Missouri, U.S.
Occupations
  • Evangelist
  • singer
  • entrepreneur
  • author
  • television personality
Years active1962–2007
Spouses
Children2, including Jay Bakker

Tamara Faye Messner (née LaValley, formerly Bakker /ˈbeɪkər/; March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American evangelist. She co-founded the televangelist program The PTL Club with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974. They had hosted their own puppet-show series for local programming in the early 1960s; Messner also had a career as a recording artist. In 1978, she and Bakker built Heritage USA, a Christian theme park.

During her career Messner was noted for her eccentric and glamorous persona, as well as for moral views that diverged from those of many mainstream evangelists, particularly her advocacy for LGBT persons and reaching out to HIV/AIDS patients at the height of the AIDS epidemic. She released three autobiographies during her lifetime, I Gotta Be Me in 1978, Tammy: Telling it My Way in 1996, and I Will Survive and You Will Too! in 2003.

Jim Bakker was indicted, convicted, and imprisoned on numerous counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989, resulting in the dissolution of The PTL Club. She divorced Bakker in 1992, while he was in prison, and married Roe Messner. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, from which she suffered intermittently for over a decade before dying of the disease in 2007.

Biography

1942–1959: Early life

She was born Tamara Faye LaValley in International Falls, Minnesota, to Pentecostal preachers Rachel Minnie (née Fairchild; 1919–1992) and Carl Oliver LaValley, who married in 1941. Shortly after she was born, a painful divorce soured her mother against ministers, alienating her from the church. Both of her parents remarried, her mother to Fred Willard Grover, forming a large blended family, of which she was the eldest.

1960–1973: Marriage to Jim Bakker; early work

In 1960, she met Jim Bakker while they were students at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tammy Faye worked in a boutique for a time while Jim found work in a restaurant inside a department store in Minneapolis. They were married on April 1, 1961. The next year, they moved to South Carolina, where they began their ministry together, initially traveling around the United States; Jim preached, while Tammy Faye sang songs and played the accordion. In 1970, she gave birth to their daughter Tammy Sue "Sissy" Bakker, and in 1975 gave birth to their son Jamie Charles Bakker.

Jim and Tammy Faye had been involved with television from the time of their departure from Minneapolis until they moved to the Charlotte area via Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they were founding members of The 700 Club. While in Portsmouth, they were hosts of the popular children's show Jim and Tammy. They then created a puppet ministry for children on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), which ran from 1964 to 1973.

1974–1987: The PTL Club

Jim and Tammy Faye co-founded The PTL Club (Praise The Lord) in 1974, a televangelist Christian news program that they initially hosted in an abandoned furniture store in Charlotte. The series mixed "glitzy entertainment with down-home family values" and preached a "'prosperity gospel' which put a divine seal of approval on both the growing affluence of American evangelicals and the showy lifestyles of their television ministers." The PTL Club soon grew into its own network and a corporate enterprise within a year of its founding, generating $120 million annually in the 1970s. In 1978, the Bakkers used $200 million of PTL funds to build Heritage USA, a Christian retreat and theme park that, at the time, ranked alongside Disney World and Disneyland as one of the most popular theme parks in the United States.

Throughout the series, Tammy Faye provided a sentimental and emotive touch to stories, and also often sang Christian songs. She was also noted for her candid discussion of topics considered taboo amongst many of her Evangelist peers, ranging from penile implants to acceptance and compassion for the LGBT community.

At the height of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s, she conducted an emotional interview with Steven Pieters, a gay Christian minister with AIDS on "Tammy's House Party," a segment of The PTL Club, during which they discussed his sexuality, coming out, diagnosis with AIDS, and the death of his partner. During the program, Tammy Faye addressed her viewership, saying: "How sad that we as Christians, who are to be the salt of the earth, we who are supposed to be able to love everyone, are afraid so badly of an AIDS patient that we will not go up and put our arm around them and tell them that we care." Throughout the AIDS epidemic, she advocated for viewers of The PTL Club to follow Christ and show compassion and pray for the ill, and also invited drug addicts onto the show to interview them about substance abuse. In 1987, it was reported that Tammy Faye was herself being treated for a prescription drug addiction.

Bakker's friend, the Reverend Mel White, commented on her presence on The PTL Club:

Her fans were people who grew up in a very fundamentalist tradition, not being able to wear make-up, or dance, or go out in public. So here comes Tammy, with her dyed hair and make-up, her ebullient spirit and outspoken ways with both men and women. She talked about sex, and flirted with Jimmy. She took on the caricature of an obedient wife, and blasted it. You have never seen Pat Robertson's wife, or Jerry Falwell's wife. They stay at home, doing what those wives do.

1988–1995: Collapse of The PTL Club and aftermath

Main article: Jim Bakker § Controversy

The Bakkers' control of PTL collapsed in 1987 after revelations that $287,000 had been paid from the organization to buy the silence of Jessica Hahn, who claims Jim Bakker raped her. In his 1997 book, I Was Wrong, Jim Bakker disputed Hahn's account, claiming that he was "set up" and that their sex was consensual. The revelations invited scrutiny of the Bakkers, and charges made about their opulent lives, including media reports of an air-conditioned doghouse at their Tega Cay, South Carolina, lakefront parsonage as well as gold-plated bathroom fixtures, dominated newscasts in the 1980s. When asked about her income, Tammy Faye 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 thereafter. Jim wrote in his book I Was Wrong that he watched the home burn on live television while incarcerated. The Charlotte Observer subsequently ran exposés of PTL's finances and management practices. PTL went bankrupt after being taken over by Lynchburg, Virginia-based Baptist televangelist Jerry Falwell, who offered to step in following the scandals in 1988.

Tammy Faye stood by Jim Bakker through the scandal, including several instances when she cried on camera. In 1989, Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison on 24 fraud and conspiracy counts (he served 5). In 1992, while Jim was in prison, Tammy Faye filed for divorce, saying in a letter to the New Covenant Church in Orlando, Florida: "For years I have been pretending that everything is all right, when in fact I hurt all the time... I cannot pretend anymore."

On October 3, 1993, she married property developer Roe Messner in Rancho Mirage, California, after he divorced his first wife. They moved to the Charlotte suburb of Matthews, North Carolina. Tammy Faye and Roe were neighbors to Christian recording star and friend David L Cook. Roe, who had a contracting business, Messner Enterprises in Andover, Kansas, had built much of Heritage USA as well as many large churches and had been a family friend to the Bakkers throughout the PTL years. Roe was the one who produced the money for the $265,000 payment to Hahn, later billing PTL for work never completed on the Jerusalem Amphitheater at Heritage USA. In the Bakkers' fraud trial, Roe Messner testified for Bakker's defense, saying that Bakker had no knowledge of the payment to Jessica Hahn, and that Falwell had sent him to the Bakker home in Palm Springs, California, to offer generous compensation "if he kept his mouth shut."

1996–2007: Later life and illness

In 1996, Roe Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud, having claimed to owe nearly $30 million to over 300 creditors in 1990. As he faced sentencing in 1996, he said he could not afford to treat his prostate cancer because he lacked health insurance. He was sentenced to and served 27 months in prison.

With her first husband fresh out of jail and her current partner now serving his sentence, Tammy Faye was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, and she re-entered the public eye in a series of books, movies, and television appearances. That year she published her autobiography, Tammy: Telling It My Way, and co-hosted a TV talk show titled The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show with Jim J. Bullock.

She appeared twice on The Drew Carey Show in 1996 and 1999, playing the mother of character Mimi Bobeck (Kathy Kinney), who was also known for wearing excessive amounts of makeup. On September 11, 2003, Messner published a new autobiography, I Will Survive... and You Will, Too!, in which she described her battles with cancer and her life with Roe Messner.

She was the subject of a documentary titled The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000), narrated by RuPaul, and a follow-up film titled Tammy Faye: Death Defying (2004).

Despite her background in Christian fundamentalism, Messner became a gay icon after parting from PTL, appearing 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 publicly expressed compassion toward, and urged support for Americans with HIV/AIDS when it was still a much-feared and unknown disease. She was benevolently referred to as "the ultimate drag queen," and said in her last interview with Larry King that, "When I went – when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that."

In early 2004, she appeared on the second season of the VH1 reality television series The Surreal Life. The show chronicled a twelve-day period wherein she, Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice, Traci Bingham, Erik Estrada, and Trishelle Cannatella lived together in a Los Angeles house and were assigned various tasks and activities. Together, the six put on a children's play and managed a restaurant for a day. She also attended a book signing for her best-seller, I Will Survive... And You Will Too.

At the end of the show, Messner said she thought of Vanilla Ice and Trishelle Cannatella as her children and could relate to them deeply because she had similar feelings and problems when she was their age.

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

Death

Messner's 11 years with cancer were highly publicized. She was first diagnosed with colon cancer in March 1996, but later revealed she had endured bleeding for a year out of embarrassment at the prospect of seeing a male doctor. The disease went into remission by the end of that year.

In March 2004, Messner made an appearance on Larry King Live and announced that she had inoperable lung cancer and would soon begin chemotherapy. She continued to receive chemotherapy throughout mid-2004. In November 2004, also on Larry King Live, she announced that she was cancer-free once again. She described the details of her chemotherapy and continued to appear regularly on King's show.

A television documentary of her struggle with cancer was produced in 2004. It was on King's program again that she announced in July 2005 that her cancer had returned. In a March 2006 appearance on the show, she said she was continuing to suffer from lung cancer, which had reached stage 4, and that she was continuing to receive treatment for it. She also mentioned having difficulty swallowing food, suffering from panic attacks, and enduring substantial weight loss. As her health continued to worsen, a "Talk of the Town" article in an October 2006 issue of The New Yorker stated that she was dying in hospice care, and a December 2006 article in Walter Scott's column in Parade reported that her son Jay was "at a North Carolina hospice with his mom, gravely ill with colon cancer".

Messner was a guest by phone on Larry King Live in December 2006, and said that she was receiving hospice care in her home. She appeared in her son Jay's documentary series One Punk Under God, wherein they talked about her cancer treatments. In one episode, she required the use of oxygen in order to talk.

In May 2007, she issued a statement on her website saying that chemotherapy had stopped, and she urged her fans to continue to pray for her. The story was reported on NBC's The Today Show, and a feature in which fans and well-wishers could post get-well messages to Tammy was added to her website.

On July 18, 2007, Messner made her final appearance on Larry King Live. At the time, she said she weighed 65 pounds (29.5 kg) and was unable to eat solid food. Messner's husband later said that he believed she chose to do the interview to say a final goodbye to her fans.

Two days later, on July 20, 2007, Messner died at her home in Loch Lloyd, near Kansas City, Missouri, after an eleven-year bout with cancer. She was 65 years old. A family service was held on the morning of July 21, at the Messner family plot in Waldron, Kansas. The ceremony was officiated by Rev. Randy McCain, the pastor of Open Door Community Church in Sherwood, Arkansas. According to CNN, the family requested that King officially report the news of her death. Her remains were cremated and her ashes were returned to Waldron Cemetery where they were subsequently buried.

In popular culture

In June 2006, a stage musical titled The Gospel According to Tammy Faye opened at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and was subsequently developed as a larger professional production. The show features songs by J. T. Buck and a book by Fernando Dovalina. The musical is described as a fantasia which takes a balanced and fair look at its subject. The impetus for the show was provided by a lengthy interview that Messner gave the authors in March 2005. The musical aired in August 2006 in Portland, Oregon and Hood River, Oregon, and it was presented on stage at Houston's Alley Theatre at the end of July 2007 under direction of Les R. Wood. Industry readings presented by the Columbia Gorge Repertory Company were held at the Manhattan Theatre Club in December 2007, the cast including Tony nominee Sally Mayes and veteran Broadway performers William Youmans, Ken Land, Julie Foldesi, James T. Lane and Heather Parcells. The readings were directed by Mindy Cooper. Seth Farber provided musical direction.

Another musical following her life, titled Big Tent, debuted in May 2007, at off-Broadway's New World Stages, in New York City. The show features music and lyrics by Ben Cohn and Sean McDaniel, a book by Jeffery Self, and direction by Ryan J. Davis. A star-studded concert of songs from the show opened in February 2008, at New York's Metropolitan Room.

A play about her final hours, Tammy Faye's Final Audition by Merri Biechler, premiered at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in June 2015. The play takes place in a fevered dream at the end of her life, wherein she enlists the men in her life for one final TV talk show audition.

A musical about the life of BeBe Winans, Born for This, debuted on June 25, 2018, at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker appear as supporting characters who give BeBe and his sister CeCe their first big break as singers on The PTL Club.

At one time, Broadway actress Kristin Chenoweth was planning a musical based on Messner's life.

In the 2021 movie The Eyes of Tammy Faye, based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, Jessica Chastain plays Tammy Faye, with Andrew Garfield as Jim. The Eyes of Tammy Faye opened on September 17, 2021. Chastain won a Critics Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress.

British playwright James Graham also wrote the book for a new musical about Tammy Faye, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Jake Shears. The musical, titled Tammy Faye, opened in October 2022 at the Almeida Theatre in London, directed by Rupert Goold.

Select discography

Year Album Record Label
1970 Tammy Tammy Tammy Hymntone Records
1977 Tammy Bakker Sings PTL Club Favorites New Pax Records
1978 Love Never Gives Up PAX Musical Productions
1979 We're Blest PTL Club Records & Tapes
1980 Run Toward the Roar PTL Club Records & Tapes
1980 The Lord's On My Side PTL Club Records & Tapes
1982 Tammy Sings... You Can Make It! PTL Club Records & Tapes
1982 Old Hymns PTL Club Records & Tapes
1984 In the Upper Room PTL Club Records & Tapes
1984 Movin' on to Victory PTL Club Records & Tapes
1985 Don't Give Up! PTL Club Records & Tapes
1986 Enough is Enough PTL Club Records & Tapes
1987 The Ballad of Jim & Tammy (single) Sutra Records
1988 Peace in the Midst of the Storm Wooded Lake Productions
1991 Love, Tammy ???
1996 Favorite Songs of Inspiration Inphomation Communications, Inc.

Bibliography

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Further reading

  • Bekkering, Denis (2018). American Televangelism and Participatory Cultures: Fans, Brands, and Play With Religious "Fakes". Palgrave Macmillan.

External links

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PTL Ministry
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