Jim Bakker, the televangelist who brough the PTL Club to national prominence in the 1980s and later moved his ministry to the Lakes Region, has died at the age of 86.
Bakker’s wife Lori, through the Facebook Page of “The Jim Bakker Show”, made the announcement that he had passed away on Monday evening.
Bakker and his first wife Tammy became national celebrities with the PTL Club with the organization eventually expanding to other business ventures including the Heritage, USA Theme Park in 1979.
Bakker was convicted of fraud for misusing funds for the ministry in 1989 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison but was paroled after five years.
Bakker and second wife Lori eventually moved to the Lake Region where Bakker restarted his television ministry in 2003 first broadcasting from Branson and later from his Morningside, USA Development in Blue Eye.
During Bakker’s time in the Ozarks, there was another legal issue in 2020 when the ministry was sued by the State of Missouri over claims made on Bakker’s show that a health supplement could kill the coronavirus that caused COVID-19. The ministry agreed to a settlement of the lawsuit with the state.
Bakker’s cause of death was not released.
