Tammy Faye Messner Dies at 65

Tammy Faye Messner, the former PTL televangelist and Christian singer, died peacefully in her home of inoperable cancer July 20. She was 65. Messner was cremated and interred at the Kansas-Okalahoma state line on Saturday, CNN reported.

“Tammy Faye Messner bravely carried on her life despite the wasting cancer that has finally taken her,” said Pat Robertson founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network. “I know that she is now with the Lord and the sorrow that she has experienced will all pass away in the light of God’s love. Her bravery in the midst of her suffering will be an inspiration to many.”

Messner announced in May that she would no longer be treated for the cancer, which began in her colon in 1996 and spread to her lungs in 2004. During her final interview Thursday evening with CNN’s Larry King she said she was looking forward to heaven.

“I believe when I leave this earth, because I love the Lord, I am going straight to heaven,” she said. Messner is survived by her husband, Roe Messner; her children, Tammy Sue Bakker Chapman and Jamie Charles Bakker, and two grandchildren.