Obituaries: Tammy Faye Messner, 65, Dies After Battle with Cancer

After battling cancer since 1996, Tammy Faye Messner has died at the age of 65.

Evangelist Tammy Faye Messner has passed away at age 65 from complications from colon cancer. The announcement came during Larry King Live on Saturday evening. Her family states that she passed "peacefully." She is reported to have died at her home in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Tammy Faye Messner in a copyrighted publicity photo with first
husband Jim Bakker.

Messner is best known as being the wife of Jim Bakker, a televangelist and a former Assemblies of God minister, who was imprisoned in 1989 on federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering. With Baker, Messner co-hosted a popular nationwide Christian television show, The PTL Club, from Heritage USA, a 2,300 acre Christian theme park/water park/residential complex the couple had built in Fort Mill, South Carolina. At its peak in 1986, Heritage USA was one of the top vacation destinations in the nation, behind Walt Disney World and Disneyland, and attracted nearly 6 million visitors annually.

This empire began to very publically fall apart in 1987, amid sexual scandal and reports of a lavish lifestyle lived by the Bakkers. Jim Bakker is reported to have diverted for personal use $3.7 million of $158 million in $1,000 memberships that were collected. These memberships were to have included a four day annual vacation for life at the park. In the end, after bankrupcy proceedings, each member received a settlement of about six dollars.

Although Messner was never implicated in these scandals, they put her in the public spotlight, and during the late 1980s she was often the target of comedians barbs, most often concerning her heavy use of cosmetics. In 1992, after 30 years of marriage, Messner divorced Bakker while he was in prison.

After PTL, which Messner co-hosted from 1976 to 1987, she remained a public figure as a Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author and talk show host. In 1993, she married Ron Messner, who was convicted in 1995 of bankruptcy fraud and spend about two years in prison. In 2004, she appeared on the second season of the WB reality show The Surreal Life, co-starring with Vanilla Ice, ex-porno star Ron Jeremy, and others. In May of the same year, she announced that she was suffering from cancer and was under hospice care. She had been diagnosed in 1996.

Messner always hoped that one day doctors would find a cure for her cancer, and remained optimistic, telling Larry King, "Don't let fear rule your life. Live one day at a time, and never be afraid. I believe when I leave this earth, because I love the Lord, I'm going straight to heaven. I don't think about it, Larry, because it's a waste of good brain space." In May of this year, she posted on her web site that doctors had quit treating her cancer and that her weight had dropped to 65 pounds.

There was a ceremony immediately following her death on Friday, in which her ashes were spread at a private cemetery. Her website, www.tammyfaye.com, has been taken off-line, simply saying "service unavailable."

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