American evangelist and talk show host Tammy Faye Messner was BOTD in 1942. Born Tamara Faye LaValley in International Falls, Tennessee, she was the daughter of Pentecostal preachers. She attended Bible college in 1960 where she met her future husband Jim Bakker, with whom she had two children. Early adopters of television to promote their evangelism, they created a children’s puppet ministry for the Christian Broadcasting Network, and hosted their own televangelist show The PTL Club in the 1970s. Together they built a multi-million dollar empire, and founded Heritage USA, a Christian-themed amusement park. Known for her big hair, drag queen make-up and relentlessly cheerful persona, she was also a popular singer, recording several albums. In 1985, she interviewed Steven Pieters, a gay Christian minister with AIDS, encouraging her viewers to show compassion to AIDS patients and for parents to love and accept their gay children. In 1989, Bakker was convicted on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy. After standing by her man, she divorced Bakker and married building contractor Ron Messner the following year. In the 1990s, she became an unlikely gay icon, appearing in Gay Pride marches alongside The Lady Bunny and RuPaul, and briefly hosted The Jim J. & Tammy Faye Show with gay actor Jim J. Bullock. She wrote three autobiographies, and fought a highly publicised decade-long battle with cancer, before her death in 2007, aged 65. Her camp legacy continued after her death with Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the stage musical The Gospel According to Tammy Faye, a 2021 biopic starring Jessica Chastain (who won an Oscar for her role) and the 2022 musical Tammy Faye, co-written by Elton John and Jake Shears.