# Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker) dead at 65 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713 "2007-07-22T01:14:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/1 "2007-07-22T01:14:22Z")
[www.cnn.com](http://www.cnn.com) So sad. ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/2 "2007-07-22T01:18:35Z")
Nice thread about her. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/3 "2007-07-22T01:19:19Z")
Why is it sad she gets to go to Heaven right? ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/4 "2007-07-22T01:19:55Z")
[QUOTE=pool] Why is it sad she gets to go to Heaven right? [/QUOTE] What? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/5 "2007-07-22T01:33:05Z")
God go with you always, Tammy Faye. It’s too bad protestants don’t have saints. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/6 "2007-07-22T01:41:26Z")
She will be missed ☹ . ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/7 "2007-07-22T02:35:13Z")
May the angels speed her to her rest. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/8 "2007-07-22T02:43:52Z")
Since this is CS . . . was she a good singer? ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/9 "2007-07-22T02:52:59Z")
Man, I saw her on TV the other day and just about cried. She just looked positively horrible. I’m glad her suffering is over. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/10 "2007-07-22T05:08:28Z")
Ah, you dear thing. You bilked millions from feeble-minded elderly people. I hope you rot in hell and are raped by Satan nightly. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/11 "2007-07-22T05:22:41Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] Ah, you dear thing. You bilked millions from feeble-minded elderly people. I hope you rot in hell and are raped by Satan nightly. [/QUOTE] Don’t hold back now - tell us how you \*\*\*really \*\* \* feel. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/12 "2007-07-22T06:20:28Z")
Bakker was indicted on federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering. No such charges were ever leveled at Tammy Faye. ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/13 "2007-07-22T06:25:28Z")
She no doubt enjoyed the fruits of her husband’s dishonesty when she was with him, but her life afterwards was one of good works. I do believe in the possibility of redeeming oneself, even without a religious connotation. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/14 "2007-07-22T06:39:01Z")
I too, admired her for turning her life around, once she left that weasel, Jim Bakker. Each one will go to a justly deserved reward. I feel Tammy’s reward will be a great deal sweeter than Jim’s. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/15 "2007-07-22T06:49:37Z")
Her actions were not the kind which deserved a slow, agonizing death, which she surely had to endure. Unlike, say, Jerry Falwell, who preached hate. Tammy, I think, meant well, but was misguided much of the time. Tammy had shown that she could change for the better, Falwell only seemed to get more hateful as the years went by. Better that she had lived a long life, while Jerry got her lingering death. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/16 "2007-07-22T07:01:43Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] Ah, you dear thing. You bilked millions from feeble-minded elderly people. I hope you rot in hell and are raped by Satan nightly. [/QUOTE] She has endured Jim’s attentions already. What could be worse?! ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/17 "2007-07-22T09:57:09Z")
You know, I was hanging out in a majority-gay bar earlier. A (girl) friend of mine came in and told the (gay) bartender that Tammy Faye had died, and he was so sad. Later he explained to me that TF had been doing AIDS outreach when Reagan wouldn’t even say the name of the disease. She did a talkshow with an HIV+ gay guy. Even did the Surreal Life. My (gay, ex-Mormon) friend admired her for how she attempted to behave in a Christian manner toward gay people, even though as an Evangelical/Fundamentalist, she did not agree with their actions as gay people. (The eye makeup was auto-camp, so good for some gay guys too.) Not everything she did was admirable. Not everything her husbands have done has been admirable. I’m a Bloom County fan, and I’ve made my share of fun of her. But it took her 11 years to die of cancer, and she seemed to do it with grace. She’s suffered a hell of a lot. I hope that that never happens to any of the posters in this thread. RIP Tammy Faye and your Fabulous Makeup. I hope you’re having the cheeseburger and fries you’ve craved in Heaven’s best (kinda-gay) disco. ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/18 "2007-07-22T10:37:05Z")
Part One of Tammy Faye’s last interview is [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuMlsKWSzjw) on youtube. She looks like death warmed over. She’s inside the foyer, admiring the hatstand. This is the same interview that reduced my (gay, ex-Mormon, bartender) friend to tears. He couldn’t watch the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/19 "2007-07-22T11:14:56Z")
Do all your friends have brackets? ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713/20 "2007-07-22T11:24:56Z")
No, my friends have parentheses. I was trying to keep them identified for the reader. ETA: Especially since I’m trying to parse out the gay-camp appeal of Tammy against her gay-activism, plus her Christian-evangelical aspects. Adding more texture to the exchange. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tammy-faye-messner-bakker-dead-at-65/412713.md?page=2)