Tribute to Tammy Faye (1942-2007)

Tammy Faye Messner loved to shop and famously asked Jesus to help her find bargains.

Today, Tammy Faye is shopping at that big mall in the sky, free from the pain of cancer and filled with the joy of the next latest and greatest pretty thing on the rack.

Over the years, Tammy Faye was ridiculed as the acquisitive wife of evangelist Jim Bakker, the founder of PLT, aka Praise the Lord or People that Love.

I don't see Tammy Faye that way. To me, she was frequently judged -- for her garish makeup, her flashy wardrobe, her overt sentimentality -- but never judgemental. She believed that God wants the best for all of us. She embraced gay people when it was unpopular in the fundamentalist community and extended her big hug to people with AIDS.

As a gal who grew up Baptist, I delighted in her spirited renderings of my favorite hymns.

"I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist," she said once.

Another Tammy Fayeism: "There are times when I just have to quit thinking... and the only way I can quit thinking is by shopping."

I watched her last Thursday night in a heart wrenching interview on CNN with Larry King. Wracked with pain, gasping for breath and weighing only 65 pounds, Tammy Faye still had a smile on her face and a twinkle in those blue eyes framed by big false eyelashes. She died the next day. I feel certain she praised God with her last words.