network: WE
Few Americans have had lives as intense and publicized, or been as adored and sometimes reviled, as Tammy Faye Messner. Four years after the award-winning documentary THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, we catch up with Tammy Faye as she fights the biggest battle of her tumultuous life -- against inoperable stage IV colon cancer.
Tammy Faye's Battle With Cancer and Road to Recovery
Watch the TCA Reel
Few Americans have had lives as intense and publicized, or been as adored and sometimes reviled, as Tammy Faye Messner.
Four years after the award-winning documentary THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, we catch up with Tammy Faye as she fights the biggest battle of her tumultuous life -- against inoperable stage IV colon cancer.
For more than six months, we follow Tammy Faye, the pop culture icon and charismatic former wife of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, as she undergoes a difficult regimen of chemotherapy, loses her trademark eyelashes, and tries to heal herself using equal doses of alternative therapy and prayer.
Though her type of cancer only has a 5-percent survival rate in the first five years, Tammy's health slowly improves. We watch as she shares her journey with AIDS patients at a hospice near her home and then as she learns to sing again, months after cancer ravaged her vocal chords. Finally, with the cancer nearing remission, Tammy Faye begins preaching again, with a whole new perspective on life and death.
Her story is inspirational and heart-warming, as she never loses her characteristic positive and fearless attitude. A woman of intense contradictions, unique style, mesmerizing personality, a singer of great joy and one of the most public weepers in America, will again show the world how she deals with adversity.
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Sunday, May 11, 2008 06:05 PM
 Joyce "Dottie" Rambo, gospel singer and songwriter (over 2,500 spritual tunes!), died early yesterday when her tour bus hurtled off Interstate 44 near Springfield, Missouri, and struck an embankment. She was 74. Seven other people on the bus taking Rambo to a Mothers Day performance in Texas were hospitalized. In 2004, Tammy Faye Messner traveled to Los Angeles to preach with Dottie, her old friend, and World of Wonder was there filming for the 2005 documentary, Tammy Faye: Death Defying. (t/y Chris)
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Tuesday, October 09, 2007 04:12 AM
World of Wonder producer/director Jeremy Simmons attended Tammy Faye Messner's memorial service in Decatur, Georgia, on Saturday:
I love tammy faye. And I love her family. And I was so happy to be a part of Tammy's memorial celebration this weekend. It was the first time I had set foot in a church by choice in years. And I'm pretty certain I wasn't the only one. Among the pillars of the Christian community sat a sprinkling of punk rock kids, transgender women, and, of course, a gaggle of gays – a testament to Tammy's incredible ability to touch people from all walks of life. Nothing and no one could have brought all these people together but Tammy. For three hours we all had something in common. We talked about our memories of Tammy. We sang songs, we told stories. We cried. Then we all went to eat. Had it been earlier, we all probably would have gone shopping for shoes. It was very low-key and intimate and silly and sad and wonderful. Tammy was alive in us all for one night. I'm hoping my tear-stained hot pink memorial program will serve as a reminder of how we all were this weekend, and how Tammy lived her life: ridiculous, emotional, vulnerable, passionate, and spirited. Thank you Tammy. You and your family have had a profound impact on my life. (Image via WOW TV)
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Saturday, July 28, 2007 03:05 AM
Touched by Tammy Faye
"Honey, God loves everybody. It's human beings who mess things up," Tammy Faye Messner said to me as she placed her tiny frail hand in mine to give a squeeze as we walked out of the movie theater. It was the premiere of her second documentary, which recounted her battle with cancer. The words she spoke in her high-pitched Minnesota drawl were so simple, and yet carried so much meaning because to Tammy Faye all men were created equal, no matter what their color, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, and in her mind not only was she not to judge other people, she was to accept them the way God intended her to. Tammy Faye Messner didn't judge people because she had walked in their shoes. Throughout her life she had been persecuted and made fun of. The joke, however, was on those who could not see past the wigs and pounds of makeup to the heart of an extraordinary woman who lived her life as best she could, mistakes and all, and gave people hope, enjoyment, and enlightenment.
Tammy Faye was born in International Falls, Minnesota, to Pentecostal preachers Carl and Rachel Fairchild LaValley. The eldest of eight children, Tammy Faye was drawn to the church early and the choir began to nurture her passion for singing. During her college years, she met her soon-to-be husband, Jim Bakker, who attended North Central Bible College and had plans to become a minister. The two soon married and moved to the South, where they were founding members off the 700 Club with ultraconservative Pat Robertson. Although their belief and faith in God and the church were strong, the right-wing's approach to persecution did not fit with Tammy Faye's religious philosophy, so she and Jim created their own ministry, called Praise the Lord, or PTL.
PTL began to flourish, and in harsh contrast to other evangelistic programs, Tammy Faye accepted homosexuals with compassion. Her prayers were not to convert or change gay people, but rather to help them be understood and accepted by the rest of the world.
In the mid '80s, scandal began to erupt when Jim Bakker resigned his ministry after his affair with former secretary Jessica Hahn was revealed on television. The controversy marked the end for the ministry, which suffered from bankruptcy and was eventually burned to the ground. The late Jerry Falwell who had been eyeing the ministry in hope of securing a television deal later bought it up. Tammy Faye’s love and compassion was extremely different from Falwell’s beliefs and the two had an ongoing feud for years after he wrenched her home out from under her feet. Tammy Faye, however, forgave Falwell before his death, a gesture he didn't bother to honor.
Jim Bakker went to prison for accounting fraud, leaving his wife and two children to fend for themselves. Tammy Faye became a national joke as bumper stickers and T-shirts were made depicting her as a fake, and the media crucified her image to the rest of the world. But in true Tammy Faye style, she accepted her fate and forgave the people around her who had betrayed her trust or had turned their backs on her. That's the way Tammy Faye was – a bubbly embodiment of hope who could rise up to meet any challenge, and it was that quality that would make her a gay icon.
She divorced Jim Bakker and married Heritage USA contractor and church builder, Roe Messner, and started a new chapter in her life. She joined forces with popular gay actor Jim J. Bullock, and the two cohosted a television talk show called The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show, and she was the subject of World of Wonder's documentary, The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Her new image was one that gay culture accepted – and her fan base continued to grow. In her last interview, with Larry King, Tammy was asked why she didn't have the same feeling toward gay people as some of her evangelistic contemporaries. She said, "Gay people have always supported me. When I was down, they were the only group who didn't turn on me." Because she didn't view gays as being any different from any one else.
Her reign as a talk show queen was unfortunately cut short when she was diagnosed with colon cancer, and was forced to leave the show. Her 11-year battle with cancer would begin, and Tammy Faye, with God and the gays on her side, was ready for the challenge. She was first diagnosed in 1996 and, after an intensive operation, went into remission. She began touring the country telling her story to others who were battling cancer and her message was one of inspiration and hope. A few years later, Messner announced that her cancer had returned, and this time was in her lungs. It was inoperable and, again, Tammy Faye put herself in God's hands and began chemotherapy. A few months later, the treatment seemed to work, and Tammy Faye was once again in remission.
Following her battle, the great people here at World of Wonder produced a second documentary, Tammy Faye: Death Defying, released through Lions Gate. It was a warm, sunny day in July when the film premiered at OutFest and I had the good fortune to meet Tammy Faye. I had worked at World of Wonder on a few other projects and was interested in meeting the woman who had survived not only cancer, but also infamy.
 As I was introduced to her, I offered my hand, but she pushed it aside and grabbed me around the waist for a huge hug. She grabbed my arm and began explaining to me about filming the movie as we marched into the packed theater. I sat next to the 95-pound Tammy Faye and watched her watching her own film. Her face would light up every time she saw herself singing and she mouthed the words of scripture along with her screen image. She told me how much she hated being shown without makeup. "I know people make fun of my makeup," she said, "but that's the way I like it." Her spirit transcended the screen, and her image was witty, poignant, and proud without an ounce of judgment or hate.
As the credits rolled, the audience, which were mostly gay since it was OutFest, rose to their feet and applauded the tiny woman who meant so much to them. She went up to the stage and answered questions from the audience and was so gracious it was humbling. Here was a woman whose life had almost destroyed her so many times, and yet she carried on with no animosity or bitterness at all. She spoke of God as a loving being, someone who understands and accepts. She spoke of the God that we remember from out childhood who doesn't judge and doesn't want other people to judge.
In her book, I Will Survive... And You Will Too, she makes a plea for all people to "grant themselves permission to cast off the things that are holding them back, to forgive themselves and others, to be happy with themselves whoever they are, to persevere in the face of opposition, and to show each other unconditional love." For Tammy Faye those sentiments were not rhetoric, they were truth.
On July 20th 2007, Tammy Faye lost her ongoing battle with cancer and died at her home. At age 65, this woman of God had accomplished and endured more than most people could fill in two lifetimes. She laughed in the face of defeat, and forgave those who had done wrong by her. It is that spirit and sensitivity that will be carried on, and hopefully will be remembered by those whose lives she touched. I know that God is in good company now. Thank you Tammy Faye, and good-bye.
– Dylan Vox
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Tuesday, July 24, 2007 06:21 PM
[Ed note: Normally, we would excerpt part of this story and link to the source for the full piece – which in this case is Salon.com – but our fearless leaders Fenton and Randy have done such a beautiful job of capturing the essence of Tammy Faye in this remembrance that we wanted to make sure we could access it long after a link would have led us to a dead page. Our apologies to Salon.]
Tammy Faye Messner was such a genius at come-into-my-living-room TV that she spent even her final moments working the camera.
By Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
Photo: Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press
July 25, 2007 | With Tammy Faye it was always about the eyes.
The very first thing Tammy did on the very first day of filming "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," the documentary we made about her, was show us her dead mother's glasses on her coffee table. She liked to keep them around, she said, to remind her how she saw things. And then, with the cameras rolling, she put them on.
In that moment we knew -- as did she -- that this would be the opening of our film. It was such an arresting, almost ghoulish thing to do, to put on your dead mother's glasses. Yet it reminded us that we all have different points of view because we are all looking through different lenses. And no matter how differently we see things, no matter how we may judge people accordingly, it's all temporary anyway.
In the opening of the movie "Crash," there's some mournful voice-over about how our lives are isolated by glass: car windscreens, television screens, computer screens. Rather than seeing this as a prescription for melancholy and loneliness, Tammy saw the screen as an opportunity to make a connection and determined to put herself in front of the eye of the camera.
Amazing really, because Tammy didn't have a lot to work with. She didn't have the genes of stardom. She grew up in Nowheresville, and Hollywood was definitely not calling. She was tiny. OK, so Hollywood could always forgive the vertically challenged as long as they had the eyes. But Tammy hardly had any eyes at all, just two tiny raisins bordered with some stumpy eyelashes.
Almost half a century before club kid and "Freak Show" author James St. James pronounced, "If you've got a hump back throw a little glitter on it, honey," she did just that; with false eyelashes glued on and mascara tattooed on, Tammy made her eyes pop. Years before Andy got around to it, Tammy painted her face like Warhol's Marilyn, and the impact was no less memorable. She gave herself a pair of abstract sunglasses that would make Elton John blush, putting bold quotation marks around the most powerful weapons she had.
It was a look that was perfect for television, an emergent trashy medium that no one really respected back then. "I still am big -- it's the pictures that got small," Gloria Swanson moaned at the end of "Sunset Boulevard." What spelled disaster for the dinosaurs of Hollywood was good news for tiny Tammy, who -- along with her sweetheart husband, Jim Bakker -- hijacked the medium of television in its infancy.
They pioneered the kind of come-into-our-living-room cozy casting that has become the staple of morning TV. And together they spoke the language of television so fluently, so effortlessly and so incessantly that suddenly they had a hugely successful ministry on their hands.
The televangelism thing gets a lot of people worked up: Poor widows sending in money they can't afford to spend in return for ... what? The fact is that television has always been a completely commercial medium, and anyone who thinks there is a safe divide -- or any divide at all -- between commercials and content needs his or her head examined. This actually makes home shopping and televangelism the purest and most honest forms of the medium: They just want your money.
But Jim and Tammy were happy to give something in return. While most televangelists used divisiveness and fear as their pitch (if you don't send money now you'll burn in hell and be overrun by commies and fags), Jim and Tammy made it all seem like one big house party. And it wasn't just a hypocritical construct limited to the television studio. They extended the experience by building around the studio an actual theme park and holiday camp. Instead of burning in the fires of hell, you could take a ride down the water flume. And everyone was welcome -- even the commies and the gays -- to come on down. People flocked in droves. Do not underestimate how revolutionary this "come one, come all" approach was among Christian circles. It was heresy.
But it was such fun, and Jim and Tammy Faye lived the high life. Even if their supposed excesses seem a little paltry compared with those of today's rap stars and hedge fund hogs, the furs and gold-plated taps did not go unnoticed. This was the big '80s -- our first brush with bling, our first contact with cashmere as the fabric of our lives -- so there was a need for expiation, for a scapegoat. Wall Street found its righteous zealot in Rudolph Giuliani, who puffed an insider-trading scandal into an overblown crusade to build his political career. And the Christian community had Jerry Falwell, who cunningly managed to steal Jim and Tammy's ministry right out from under their noses. In the end Jim and Tammy lost everything. Jim went to prison on fraud and conspiracy charges and Tammy went into exile in the desert.
But all that is really just a sideshow when it comes to understanding Tammy Faye's legacy. She loved to touch people and, in the age of mass media, she knew that the best way to do that was through the lens of a camera.
In "The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show" (a sadly short-lived syndicated show), "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," "The Surreal Life," "Tammy Faye: Death Defying" (a film Tammy asked us to make in 2005 documenting her battle with cancer that aired on We) and "One Punk Under God" (the TV series we produced about Tammy Faye's son, Jay), she continued to speak the language of television with a virtuosity that was quite simply pure genius.
Heroically, she kept on doing it right up until hours before her death. Even with a face ravaged by cancer, she called Larry King and asked him to interview her. She looked dreadful. But she still had the eyes, not because the lashes were super-glued and the mascara tattooed, but because she always knew it was all about the eyes. And she knew -- as we all should know by now -- that the most important eye of all is the eye of the camera lens.
Sundance Channel will air a marathon of "One Punk Under God" on Thursday, July 26.
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Monday, July 23, 2007 06:55 PM
There's never been a more mischievous laugh than Tammy Faye's, and as I've struggled to come up with some fitting tribute or memory to share, I keep hearing it, her one-note "Ha!" that punctuated so many moments.
I'm blessed with many memories of time spent with Tammy, everything from her first chemo treatment to sharing the stage at Frameline to splitting desserts at Appleby's, and through it all there was that unstoppable spirit and infectious laugh that we know and love her for. Even on the worst of days and through the tears, that laugh and spirit got Tammy through many hard times, and that's one of the lessons she leaves behind. It's that laugh that I'll miss more than anything, but with so many memories it'll never be very far away.
If Tammy saw me moping around today, I like to think she'd give me her trademark "Turn that frown upside down. Oops, here comes a smile." And she'd be right, because there it is.
– Chris McKim, director, Tammy Faye: Death Defying
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Monday, July 23, 2007 06:35 PM
In his blog at The Huffington Post, our friend and colleague and former WOW associate, Gabriel Rotello, tells what he learned while coproducing the WOW documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye. It's the rarely told real story of how Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's "friend" Jerry Falwell played Satan in the fall of their PTL ministry and Heritage USA theme park. It should be required reading.
Falwell was the most powerful Christian activist in the nation, significantly responsible for the election of Ronald Reagan. He also knew that Jim and Tammy were far more popular than he. Worse, the Bakkers didn't tow Falwell's harsh, demonizing party line. They preached love, not hate. They didn't condemn people, they embraced everybody, including – horrors – gays and people with AIDS. They had never endorsed Ronald Reagan or gone in for right-wing politics. Visitors had fun at their theme park. And perhaps their worst sin of all – they owned a TV satellite that gave them immense power to spread their message of love and forgiveness and inclusion.
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Monday, July 23, 2007 04:58 AM
While all of us were busy getting our weekend started, Tammy Faye Messner was quietly succumbing to the cancer she'd been bravely fighting – and at one time wrestled into submission – for 10 years. She died at home near Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday, and her ashes were interred on Saturday in a remote part of Kansas at the Kansas-Oklahoma border. She was 65. Larry King, who was asked by Tammy Faye's family to make the announcement on Saturday, said she had requested there be a party in Palm Springs after she died. "She wanted it to be a celebration," he said, which is typical of the vibrant not-quite-five-feet-tall dynamo who survived scandal and heartbreak as a TV evangelist to become a beloved pop-culture icon, all the while living an exemplar life according to the Lord's Prayer – especially that part about "as we forgive those who trespass against us." Of course, Tammy put it in secular terms: "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Last week, on her final television appearance, she told Larry King, “I want my funeral to be a real happy time. I want everybody laughing and remembering how crazy I was.”
At World of Wonder we're especially saddened by her death because, after working with her on two documentary series, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Tammy Faye: Death Defying, we came to know and love her as the kind of person we should all aspire to be: honest, loving, forgiving, and a helluva broad. (Yes, to be more like Tammy, we'd even contemplate a sex change.) We think that by just knowing her, a little bit of what she was has rubbed off on all of us. Really, was there ever a finer, more fabulous human being? "When I was a little girl," she once said, "I used to pray, 'Dear God, please don't let my life be boring. I found that you have to be careful what you pray for."
Today, we're going to give the WOW Report over to Tammy Faye, posting (in no particular order) some of the clips we've archived over the years. Even though she wouldn't want you to cry, you're going to. And it's OK. We are.
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Monday, July 23, 2007 04:45 AM
I was never interested in working with Brando or DeNiro or any other big star. But two months out of college in 1995, when I got the opportunity to PA on a new talk show pilot starring Tammy Faye, I jumped at the chance.
 Tammy had magnetism about her wherever she went, and working with her was a surreal experience. Day one, when Tammy came to town, she was staying at the Oakwoods and I was the lucky one who got to pick her up and take her shopping. From the moment we stepped inside the Ralphs supermarket on Buena Vista and Victory in Burbank, she lit up the store. Between buying packs of bologna and cheese and cases of Diet Coke (her favorite), shoppers would do double-takes as she passed by. Some asked for her autograph, not believing Tammy Faye could be blessing their little neck of the woods. And everyone who saw her, whether they asked for her autograph or not, had a big smile. You just couldn’t miss that face… or her bright spirit.
Later that year, on my birthday, Tammy insisted on giving me a big surprise, even though she had traveled back home to Palm Springs. When the producer of the show called me into his office, he had Tammy on the speakerphone, her larger-than-life voice singing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was a moment I’ll always treasure.
I later became a producer on The Jim J and Tammy Faye Show, a series with a lotta brilliance, but not a lotta viewers, a show perhaps before its time. But Tammy was always delightful and made the most out of every day. At her best, Tammy’s comedic timing rivaled Lucille Ball's; I'm reminded particularly of her facial expression on a cooking segment when she made tofu and was forced to eat it – classic TV. The staff and audience loved her, and so did I. Tammy left the show when she was diagnosed with cancer. Although I didn’t see her very much over the next few years –Tammy moved back home – we’d reunite every time she came to town. And it was always like no time had passed.
Last week, when Tammy did her final interview from Kansas City, I had my friend and Larry King producer relay to Tammy that she was in my prayers. She cried and said it meant so much to her. And it also meant a lot to me. A true talent with a heart of gold and eyes of Maybelline, she will be missed.
– Todd Radnitz, WOW producer
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Monday, July 23, 2007 04:40 AM
 Thanks to the bright souls at World of Wonder, I was blessed to know Tammy Faye. "Blessed" is a simple word for the powerful impact she had on all our lives. I have spent this morning re-reading letters and notes I received from Tammy and found this, "Honey, look back at my life and the whole message is 'There is NOTHING too hard for the Lord!'" Well, there was nothing too hard for Tammy. No matter what joy people found in making her the target of their humor, she wouldn't fall for it. No matter what illness was given her to battle, she'd conquer it. No matter what betrayals came her way, she forgave them. No matter what sick heart came to her for love, she gave it. When I left her in June and we gave each other a final hug, she spoke a blessing for my mom to keep her safe after my dad just passed away. I tried to return the blessing, asking Jesus to keep our Tammy safe, but He was tapping me on the shoulder saying, "It's already being done. It's time for her to go."
I'm sure she left this earth wearing her high-heeled lucite slippers, rings on all her fingers, and not a lash out of place. She was dressed in her favorite St. John knit and ready to be collected by God's car and driver. She probably laughed the whole way up the golden staircase, waving to all. We will wave now, one hand holding a Diet Coke, the other squinting through our lashes into the sunshine, where we can see Tammy, sitting next to God, having the time of her life.
– Alicia Gargaro, producer, Tammy Faye: Death Defying
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Joyce "Dottie" Rambo, gospel singer and songwriter (over 2,500 spritual tunes!), died early yesterday when her tour bus hurtled off Interstate 44 near Springfield, Missouri, and struck an embankment. She was 74. Seven other people on the bus taking Rambo to a Mothers Day performance in Texas were hospitalized. In 2004, Tammy Faye Messner traveled to Los Angeles to preach with Dottie, her old friend, and World of Wonder was there filming for the 2005 documentary, Tammy Faye: Death Defying. (t/y Chris)
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