Tammy Faye
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Tammy Faye Bakker Messner (born Tamara Faye LaValley on March 7, 1942 in International Falls, Minnesota), is a Christian singer and U.S. television personality, the former wife of televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker.
They were married from 1961 until 1992, after having met as students at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis.
They have two children;
- daughter Tammy Sue Bakker Chapman (b. March 2, 1970; sons, James and Jonathan)
- son Jamie Charles (Jay) Bakker [1] (b. December 18, 1975, wife Amanda).
Contents |
PTL Club and Scandal
She is best known for her tendency to wear a great deal of mascara in public, from The PTL Club (aka The Jim And Tammy Show), as well as the infidelity (see Jessica Hahn) and financial scandals of her former husband.
She is also known for Heritage USA, the resort/theme park and cable network broadcast facility they built in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area at nearby Fort Mill, South Carolina.
She and Jim Bakker had been involved with television from their departure from Minneapolis, Minnesota (where they met and later married through a Pentecostal Bible College), until they moved to the Charlotte area, via Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they founded the 700 Club and a puppet ministry for children on Pat Robertson's Network, the CBN, and in California where they co-founded the (Trinity Broadcasting Network) with friends Paul and Jan Crouch.
The PTL Empire grew under their leadership, but the Bakkers' drew a lot of concern about their opulent lifestyle; media reports of an air-conditioned dog house at their lakefront parsonage as well as gold-plated bathroom fixtures dominated the newscasts of the 1980s.
The Bakkers' home, owned by the ministry, was actually an older home built in the early 1970s and far from a mansion. 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.
However, due to Bakkers' resignation from the ministry after his affair with Jessica Hahn was made public, as well as investigative reporters from the Charlotte Observer reporting on PTL's finances and management, PTL went bankrupt after being taken over by controversial Lynchburg, Virginia-based Baptist televangelist Jerry Falwell, who offered to step in following the sexual and financial scandals in 1988.
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.
After PTL
Tammy Faye has since remarried to a former Heritage USA contractor and church builder Roe Messner in 1993. She now goes by the name Tammy Faye Messner, and still resides in the Charlotte, NC suburb of Matthews, North Carolina. Her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer years ago, but has chosen not to seek traditional chemotherapy/radiation in favor of a "watchful waiting" approach (one source indictaed that he did not have health insurance).
Tammy Faye was the subject of a 1999 documentary film entitled The Eyes of Tammy Faye and a follow up film in 2004 entitled Tammy Faye:Death Defying (Lions Gate Films, Toronto).
In 1996, she co-hosted another TV talk show entitled The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show, with Jim J. Bullock, an HIV-positive and openly gay actor. The syndicated show ended when Tammy chose to leave after being diagnosed with colon cancer.
She also appeared on The Drew Carey Show, playing the mother of Mimi Bobek, also known for wearing excessive amounts of mascara.
On March 19, 2004, Messner, a survivor of colon cancer, announced on Larry King Live (broadcast on CNN) that she had inoperable lung cancer, and would soon begin chemotherapy.
Later, on November 30, 2004, also on Larry King Live, she then announced that she was cancer free. She also described details of her chemotherapy and continued to regularly appear on that show. It was on the program that Tammy Faye announced, on July 20, 2005, that cancer had returned to her lungs. She still reportedly is suffering with the illness at her home in North Carolina and continues to undergo radiation treatments and chemotherapy.
In 2005, Messner appeared in an infomercial for controversial medical author Kevin Trudeau. She makes occasional guest appearances on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
On March 13, 2006, Messner appeared again on a Larry King Live broadcast on CNN and stated that she is suffering from Stage 4 Lung Cancer and is continuing treatment for it. She appeared visibly upset and clearly aware of her grave health. She also mentioned difficulty swallowing food, having panic attacks and lost quite a bit of weight. As of March 2006, she weighs roughly 94 lbs.
The Surreal Life
In early 2004, Messner appeared on the second season of the Warner Bros. reality series, The Surreal Life. The show chronicled a twelve-day period when Messner, porn star Ron Jeremy, rapper Vanilla Ice, Baywatch actress Traci Bingham, CHiPs actor Erik Estrada, and Trishelle from The Real World: Las Vegas all lived together in a Los Angeles house and were assigned various bizarre tasks and activities.
Together, the six put on a children's play, visited a nudist resort (without Tammy), managed a restaurant for a day, and got readings from a psychic (also without Tammy).
During the taping, Messner 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.
During the show's taping, Messner attended a book signing for her recent best-seller, I Will Survive... And You Will Too, it became apparent that Messner's fan base exceeds expectations. Messner's book signing brought people of all ages, from all walks of life, including punks, homosexuals, transvestites and religious followers.
At the signing, Messner spoke candidly about her relationship with Bakker and how she had to learn to let go.
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 her four roommates that were present (Ron Jeremy stayed home) to tears; Bingham later confessed to Messner that it had been a life-altering moment for her.
In addition to surprising some of her room mates with her willingness to accept all people and lifestyles, her close friendship with Ron Jeremy and willingness to laugh at his (and the others') dirty jokes, supported her claims that she was "not a prude" and even "a bit cool".
Her revelation of hopelessness and despair that she experienced after her divorce from Bakker, and the subsequent media backlash against her also stunned her castmates. It gave her common ground with Vanilla Ice, who had similarly fought depression and a media backlash, and whom she came to think of like a son by the end of the show.
Her unerring faith in God and constant efforts to spread love and friendship with all in the house earned deep respect from her room mates.
Though the show presented a side of Tammy Faye and evangelism that many Americans had probably never seen before, of open-minded, compassionate, and non-judgmental friend to all she met, there were also moments during the show where Messner was clearly uncomfortable.
Messner refused to visit the nudist colony, instead requesting to stay in a hotel the moment she saw a naked man and realized that she was at a nudist colony. She also did not take part in the psychic séance, and was noticeably offended when Jeremy's backyard pool party became clothing-optional, after which point she stayed in her room.
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. She stated that Ron Jeremy was one of the nicest and most gentlemanly people she had ever met in her life.
She also revealed that although she had been incredibly reluctant to take part in The Surreal Life, and only did so at the pushing of her husband, it ended up being one of the most rewarding experiences in her life.
Tammy Faye's involvement with the IRS
The Charlotte Observer newspaper reported that the Internal Revenue Service still holds Bakker and Roe Messner, Tammy Faye's 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 PTL ministry's nonprofit status.
Tammy Faye's new husband 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 liens list James O. and Tamara F. Bakker as owing $3 million, on which liens the Bakkers still pay.
Tammy Faye in popular culture
Tammy Faye and previous husband Jim Bakker are referred to in Frank Zappa's song, Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk, from the Broadway the Hard Way tour of 1988, and released post-PTL scandal in 1989. Zappa's song lampoons and castigates evangelical television ministries of that era, and the PTL Club was a prime target.
Canadian writer Margaret Atwood loosely based her character Serena Joy in the novel The Handmaid's Tale on Tammy Faye.
In 2005 she was honored by Lancaster, South Carolina with Tammy Faye Day on April 21, 2005.
Tammy Faye has developed a devoted fan base in the gay and transvestite communities, possibly in homage to her exaggerated make-up and fashion sense. A drag entertainer dubbed Tammy Faye Sinclair performs in the West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky areas.
In 1985, Tammy Faye was mentioned by the hardcore punk band NOFX during their "Jim and Tammy Bakker Fundraising" Tour on the tour T-shirts that stated "If we don't sell all our singles, God will kill us!." Her image was also used on the NOFX album, "The PMRC Can Suck On This."
External links
- National Public Radio All Things Considered The Re-Invention of Tammy Faye: Former Christian Broadcasting Queen Has New Gay Following June 20, 2002 (Online article with audio of ATC story and video clip of film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
- Tammy Faye's Official Web Site
- Tammy Faye at the Internet Movie Database
- Heritage USA Yahoo! Group