Tamara Faye “Tammy” Becker Messner Wife of television preacher Jim Becker, with whom from 1976 to 1987 was the author and host of the Christian television program “The PTL Club”. Tammy was also remembered for her image with heavy makeup on her face, especially the abundant use of mascara and large false eyelashes.
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Biography
Young years
Tamara Fay Wally was born in International Falls, Minnesota, the eldest of two children in a family of Pentecostal preachers. Shortly after Tammy was born, her parents divorced, and she stayed with her mother and brother. After a couple of years, her mother remarried and gave birth to six more children. In her youth, Tammy helped her mother a lot with the housework and care of her younger brothers and sisters, and her aunt, who introduced the girl to the church, had the greatest influence at that time.
At the age of ten, the devout Tammy “felt in herself the light of the love of God” and went deeper into religion. She began attending summer Bible camps and singing in a church choir. As a schoolgirl, she immediately went to work at the department store where her aunt used to work. From a young age, Tammy was largely limiting herself, for example, she did not attend movie theaters, dance schools and did not play baseball, because her church forbade all these idleness. After leaving school, at the suggestion of her mother, Tammy became a minister in the church.
Jim Becker and The PTL Club
In 1960, while studying at Bible College in Minneapolis , Minnesota , Tammy met Jim Bakker, [3] with whom she began an affair. A year later, they got married and moved to North Carolina , where they organized a joint ministry in the church. In 1970, Tammy had a daughter, Tammy, Sue Bakker Chapman, and five years later, the son of Jamie Charles Bakker.
Soon after her marriage, she and her husband began to work closely with local television studios. Together they organized several Christian missionary television programs, and in the mid -1970s , her husband Jim became the creator of their most famous project, The PTL Club ( Praise The Lord , Russian Praise the Lord ). This TV version of this project initially told sentimental and soulful everyday stories of Christians mixed with Christian songs, and then reports about homosexuals began to be included in the program, during which Tammy called on the audience to be patient and understanding, and reports about AIDS patients , for which Tammy called for prayer and sympathy. Thanks to these performances, Tammy gained great respect and support among the gay and transvestite community.
The PTL Club project ceased to exist in 1987 after a scandal during which it was revealed that the project paid $ 287,000 to actress Jessica Hunt for silence about the fact of her intimate relationship with Jim Becker. The investigation revealed details about the luxurious life of the Becker couple. The media leaked information about the air conditioning in their dog’s booth, as well as about the gilded bathroom fixtures. In addition to this, several cases of Becker fraud related to the sale of land for large amounts were disclosed, for which, in 1988, Jim Becker received 45 years in prison and the PTL Club project was declared bankrupt.
Second Marriage and Cancer
In 1992, Messner filed for divorce from Becker. A year later, she married counterparty Ro Messner. [four]
In 1996, Tammy Messner was diagnosed with colon cancer . [5] Having started a fight with him, she returned again on television, where she resumed her performances in order to attract viewers to the problems of seriously ill people. In addition to this, she wrote several similar books and a couple of autobiographies. In addition, she appeared on television and as an actress in the TV series Rosanna, The Drew Carey Show and Hollywood Square.
Since 2004 , Messner has become a frequent guest at the Larry King Show , in which she told the audience about her health and treatment processes. In the same year, viewers learned that Tammy had lung cancer , and as a result she was forced to undergo chemotherapy . [6] In 2006, at the same show, she said that she continued to suffer from lung cancer. She also said that she has difficulty swallowing food, suffers from panic attacks and continues to significantly lose weight. In the fall of 2006, The New Yorker magazine reported that Tammy Faye Messner was in the hospice , where she was slowly dying. [7] In May 2007, she published a statement on her website stating that all procedures for her cancer treatment were stopped, but despite this, urged her fans to continue to pray for her. [eight]
Death
July 19, 2007 Tammy last appeared on the “Larry King Show”, in which she appeared before the audience completely thin and exhausted. At the end of the broadcast, she confessed her love to the audience and expressed hope to meet them someday in heaven. Her husband later reported that Tammy decided in this interview to say goodbye to her fans. The next morning, July 20, 2007 , at the age of 65, Tammy Faye Messner died in her home after 11 years of fighting the disease. [9]
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Internet Movie Database - 1990.
- ↑ 1 2 Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
- ↑ Ex-wife of evangelist Jim Bakker dies By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
- ↑ Bakker marries business friend - North Hills Record - October 5, 1983
- ↑ Tammy Faye Messner's Cancer Treatments Stop, Weight Down to Just 65 Pounds Archived February 11, 2009 on Wayback Machine Fox News. May 10, 2007
- ↑ Former Tammy Faye Bakker tells Larry King she has inoperable lung cancer Associated Press / March 19, 2004
- ↑ Walter Scott . Personality Parade , Parade (December 10, 2006). Date of treatment July 25, 2007.
- ↑ Tammy Faye Messner. Message to fans . TammyFaye.com (May 10, 2007). Date of treatment July 25, 2007. Archived April 14, 2012.
- ↑ Public memorial to be planned for Tammy Faye McClatchy Newspapers - July 22, 2007