Tamara Faye Messner (née LaValley, formerly Bakker; March 7, 1942 â€"
July 20, 2007) was an American Christian singer, evangelist, author,
talk show hostess, and television personality. She initially gained
notice for her work with The PTL Club, a televangelist program that
she co-founded with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974. They had hosted
their own puppet show series for local programming in Minnesota in the
early 1970s; Messner also had a career as a recording artist. In 1978,
she and Bakker built Heritage USA, a Christian theme park.Messner
garnered significant publicity when 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 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.During her career Messner
was noted for her eccentric and glamorous persona, as well as for her
moral views that diverged from those of many mainstream Evangelists,
particularly her acceptance of LGBT views and reaching out to HIV/AIDS
patients at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
July 20, 2007) was an American Christian singer, evangelist, author,
talk show hostess, and television personality. She initially gained
notice for her work with The PTL Club, a televangelist program that
she co-founded with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974. They had hosted
their own puppet show series for local programming in Minnesota in the
early 1970s; Messner also had a career as a recording artist. In 1978,
she and Bakker built Heritage USA, a Christian theme park.Messner
garnered significant publicity when 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 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.During her career Messner
was noted for her eccentric and glamorous persona, as well as for her
moral views that diverged from those of many mainstream Evangelists,
particularly her acceptance of LGBT views and reaching out to HIV/AIDS
patients at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
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