6. Tammy Faye Messner
Tammy Faye Baker Messner was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996 and in 2004 she revealed that it had spread to her lungs. She fought the disease for three years, but by 2007 her doctors had stopped treatment. Messner co-founded the evangelical PTL Club with her then-husband Jim Bakker and went on to become a TV personality. In March 1996, she was diagnosed with colon cancer, which went into remission by the end of the year. On March 18, 2004, she went on Larry King Live and announced she has inoperable lung cancer. “They can’t take it out because it’s too near the heart and there are too many blood vessels that are near the cancer,” Messner said. “I knew I was starting to have problems with my voice, but I certainly didn’t equate it with cancer,” she said. She received chemotherapy, but the cancer returned within a year. Messner continued to fight until July 20, 2007, when she died at home at age 65.
For years Messner and Jim Bakker were Christian television’s most prominent couple. In 1989, Bakker was sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding their followers of millions. Messner’s popularity continued to grow and in 2000 a documentary film, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” was released to critical acclaim. The film was billed as the other side of the Tammy Faye story, the one opposite the story that played out in the tabloids.