September 11, 2007
Tammy Faye Tribute in Rancho Mirage
Evangelist Tammy Faye Messner was remembered Monday night as a compassionate, forgiving child of God and a “bold witness for the Lord.”About 300 people filled the Victory Christian Center to bid farewell to Mrs. Messner, whose ties to the Inland area date to the 1980s when she and her then-husband Jim Bakker made the desert a favorite getaway. They bought their first desert house in 1984.
Mrs. Messner served as choir director, church organist and special soloist at the church. A color picture of her adorned a podium at the front.
Mrs. Messner died July 20 in Kansas City, Mo., after a long battle with inoperable cancer. She made her final appearance on “Larry King Live” a few days before her death, telling viewers that she couldn’t swallow food and weighed only 65 pounds.
At the service, many remembered Mrs. Messner for making the flea market circuit in the Coachella Valley, where she invariably stopped and prayed for everyone who came to her and said they were troubled.
. . .
She was also remembered for always having a kind word for a harried waitress or anyone she encountered on her famed shopping sprees in local department stores.
Sadly, Tammy Faye was picketed by you-know-who, too:
“Before the service, about 10 protesters from a Baptist church in Kansas stood at an intersection on Bob Hope Drive carrying placards criticizing Mrs. Messner because of her personal life and her well-known acceptance of gay people.“About 18 people staged a counter-protest across the street.”
Filed under: Celebrities, Fred Phelps, R.I.P., Religion & Spirituality
