March 07

Tamara Faye LaValley's Birthday
 


When Tamara Faye LaValley was born to Pentecostal preachers, the first words that her mother Rachel said when seeing her was "Praise the Lord." Unfortunately, her father wasn't as thankful as her mother, and they divorced shortly thereafter which soured Rachel against all ministers. When Tammy Faye, as she was then called,  attended Assemblies of God church serviceat age ten, she said she "felt the glow of God's love and wanted to call herself upon the Lord."

Tammy Faye's growing interest in the Christian ministry prompted her marriage to Jim Bakker when she was twenty and the following year, they moved to South Carolina to began their ministry where they became members of the 700 Club, the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network for which they developed a puppet ministry for children.

Jim and Tammy founded the PTL (Praise The Lord) Club in 1975 where Tammy Faye would appear wearing heavy makeup and her signature tattooed eyebrows singing praises to the Lord. The popular  and profitable TV ministry collapsed eleven years later when the media learned $287,000 had been paid from PTL funds organization to buy the silence of Jessica Hahn, who had had asex with Jim Bakker. But Tammy loved the bad boys. After Tammy Faye divorced Jim, she married she married Roe Messner who later Messner filed  bankruptcy in 1990, saying he owed nearly $30 million to more than 300 creditors. He wound up being convicted of bankruptcy fraud.

So what else was left for Tammy Faye than reality TV?  In early 2004, she appeared on the second season of the VH1's The Surreal Life in which  she, Ron Jeremy, Vanilla Ice, Erik Estrada and few other celebrities lived together which was in many ways was the biblical definition of hell.Two years later she was diagnosed with colon cancer which she announced on CNN's
 Larry King Live and made follow-up visits documenting the metastasis of the disease over the next eleven years when it final spread to her lungs. On July 19, 2007, Tammy Faye made another appearance on Larry's show emaciated and dying  -  shocking everyone who saw the show with her emaciated image. Tammy died the following day.

Although she was initially parodied by many for her outrageous makeup and eyebrow and often over-the-top expressed love of the Lord,  nearly everyone in her later years grew to admire Tammy Faye Bakker Messner's courage and belief that one day she would live with someone for eternity that would truly love her.

So in remembrance of a life lived well regardless of adversities, we suggest baking a few dozen of the classic Southern favorite Praise the Lord sugar cookies, and hope that they will being some of the sweetness into others lives that Tammy tried bring to during her lifetime. Enjoy them with The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000)affectionately narrated by RuPaul.
 

Praise the Lord Sugar Cookies

 


Ingredients
 

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup. butter (cold)
2 eggs
 
1 tsp vanilla
4 1/4 cup. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
 
Instructions
 
  1. Mix ingredients well into a dough.
  2. Chill dough for 1 hour.
  3. Roll dough into walnut size balls and press flat on ungreased cookie sheet with bottom of sugared glass.
  4. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes or until light brown.
 

Makes 16-20 cookies

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes