Remembering Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye Messner and her then-husband, television evangelist Jim Bakker, talk to their TV audience at their PTL ministry near Fort Mill, S.C., on Aug. 20, 1986. Messner, who as Tammy Faye Bakker helped her husband, Jim, build a multimillion-dollar evangelism empire and then saw it collapse in disgrace, died Friday, July 20, 2007, said her booking agent, Joe Spotts. She was 65.

Tammy Faye Messner divorced Jim Bakker while he was in prison for bilking 116,000 followers of his PTL ministries out of $158 million in the 1980s. She painted a blistering portrait of fellow evangelists in her book "Tammy: Telling It My Way."

Tammy Faye Bakker and her then-husband, television evangelist Jim Bakker, talk to their TV audience at their PTL ministry near Fort Mill, S.C., on Aug. 20, 1986.

Tammy Faye Bakker Messner and her then husband Jim Bakker on Oct. 24, 1987 in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Tammy Faye Messner, smiles during the taping of an info-mercial in 1987.

Tammy Faye sings "On Christ the solid rock I stand" in Charleston, N.C. as her lawyer George T. Davis looks on in this Oct. 5, 1989 photo after her husband was found guilty on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

Deposed PTL television evangelist Jim Bakker and his then-wife Tammy Faye hold a news conference outside their Gatlinburg, Tenn., home, on Oct. 8, 1987. At right is the Bakkers' son, Jamie Charles or Jay Bakker who is now a preacher at Revolution, an alternative Christian congregation in New York City.

Tammy Faye Messner poses with her dog at a book-signing session in Charlotte on Oct. 21, 1996. Messner had two Yorkshire terriers, Tuppins and Muffin.

Tammy Faye Messner blows a kiss to the audience gathered for the filming of a television infomercial at Spirit Square in Charlotte, N.C. on Oct. 5, 1995.

Tammy Faye Messner speaks during a panel discussion for the We Television Network 2005 Television Critics Winter Press Tour at the Hilton Universal Hotel on Jan. 14, 2005 in Universal City, Calif.

Tammy Faye speaks to Larry King on CNN's "Larry King Live" on March 18, 2004. Messner announced on the show that she had inoperable lung cancer.

Tammy Faye Messner poses with a rabbit for the cover of PETA's 2003 Shopping Guide for Caring Consumers, PETA's most popular publication in Charlotte, North Carolina. The catalog, which featuered cruelty free cosmetics, combined two of Messner's loves: animals and make-up.

Tammy Faye Messner and her husband Roe pose at a book signing party for her new book on September 16, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. Messner was promoting her book "I Will Survive...And You Will, Too!" The couple were married in 1993. Roe Messner, a building contractor, was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 1995 and spent two years in prison.

The Outfest 2005 panel for "Tammy Faye: Death Defying" is seen at the Directors Guild on July 16, 2005 in Hollywood, Calif. Tammy Faye Messner was embraced by many in the gay community and was one of the first evangelists to reach out to people with AIDS.

Director Stephen Gutwillig and Tammy Faye Bakker pose for a photograph at the Outfest 2005 panel for "Tammy Faye: Death Defying" at the Directors Guild on July 16, 2005 in Hollywood, Calif.