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Tammy Faye Dies At Age 65

Messner Had Suffered From Inoperable Cancer

POSTED: 9:11 pm EDT July 21, 2007
UPDATED: 7:21 am EDT July 22, 2007

Former televangelist Tammy Faye Messner has died after battling cancer. She was 65.

As Tammy Faye Bakker, she helped her husband, Jim, build a multi-million-dollar evangelism empire and then saw it collapse in disgrace. They divorced after 30 years of marriage while he was in prison for defrauding millions of followers of their television ministries.

Bakker said his ex-wife "is now in Heaven with her mother, grandmother and Jesus Christ, the one who she loves and has served from childbirth."

She married Roe Messner in 1993.

Click For CNN Coverage: Tammy Faye Dies At Age 65

Messner's agent said she died at her North Carolina home on Friday. Her family held a private ceremony Saturday where her ashes were interred.

Messner appeared Thursday in an interview with CNN's Larry King, looking emaciated. She had battled colon cancer since 1996 that more recently spread to her lungs.

Messner stopped receiving cancer treatments in May and had undergone hospice care in her home since then.

She told King that she trusts God with her life.

"I talk to God every single day, and I say, `God, my life is in your hands, and I trust you with me,"' the former televangelist said.

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