Tammy Faye Bakker Loses Battle with Lung Cancer.

Tammy Faye Messner, better known as Tammy Faye Bakker, died at age 65. She was the former wife of American televangelist Jim Bakker; together they collaborated in a ministry that was spectacularly successful until he was defrocked for adultery, financial mismanagement and jailed on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

Messner was born Tamara Faye LaValley on March 7, 1942, at International Falls, Minnesota. Both of her parents were Pentecostal preachers, but they divorced when she was a young child; her mother went on to marry a paper-mill worker. At the age of 10 Tammy Faye was taken to the Assemblies of God church, where, she said, she experienced the glow of God's love.

As a pupil at Falls High School she sang in the choir and spent the summers at Bible camp. She was forbidden to attend school dances or to go to the cinema. It was at North Central Bible College that she met Jim Bakker, a fellow student and former high school disc jockey. They married in 1961 and moved to North Carolina.

Tammy Faye's later years were clouded by illness, which she chose to share with the American nation. On March 19, 2004, she announced on "Larry King Live" that she had inoperable lung cancer and would soon begin chemotherapy.

Her last appearance on King's program was recorded last Wednesday and broadcast on Thursday.