James Orsen Bakker is an American televangelist and convicted fraudster. Between 1974 and 1987, Bakker hosted the television program The PTL Club and its cable television platform, the PTL Satellite Network, with his then-wife, Tammy Faye.
James Orsen Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan, the son of Raleigh Bakker and Furnia Lynette “Furn” Irwin. Bakker attended North Central University, a Minneapolis bible college affiliated with the Assemblies of God, where he met fellow student Tammy Faye LaValley in 1960.
Bakker worked at a restaurant in the Young-Quinlan department store in Minneapolis; Tammy Faye worked at the Three Sisters, a nearby boutique.
The Bakkers married on April 1, 1961, and left college to become itinerant evangelists. They had two children, Tammy Sue “Sissy” Bakker Chapman (born March 2, 1970) and Jamie Charles “Jay” Bakker (born December 18, 1975).
The couple divorced on March 13, 1992. On September 4, 1998, Bakker married Lori Beth Graham, a former televangelist, fifty days after they met. In 2002, they adopted five children.
Tamara Faye Messner was an American evangelist, singer, author, talk show host, and television personality. She gained notice for her work with The PTL Club, a televangelist program she co-founded with her husband Jim Bakker in 1974.