Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy was born on October 9, 1890, near Salford, Ontario, Canada. Her mother, Minnie, was devoted to the Salvation Army, and Aimee grew up in a home that valued hard service for the poor. As a teenager, she wavered in her faith and was drawn to the theater and to the new ideas of evolution that she heard in school. In 1907 she went to a revival meeting led by a young Pentecostal preacher from Ireland, Robert Semple, and she was gripped by the message. She turned to Christ and was soon filled with a new zeal. A year later she married Robert Semple, and the two of them set out as missionaries.

They sailed for China in 1910. Within a few weeks, Robert died of malaria and dysentery in Hong Kong. Aimee was pregnant, alone and ill, in a strange land. She gave birth to a daughter, Roberta, and returned to the United States. She was devastated, and she wondered whether God had abandoned her. In the next years she married Harold McPherson and had a son, Rolf. She tried to settle into ordinary life and could not. She felt a call to preach.

In 1915 she left her husband and began to travel as an evangelist, first in a car she called the Gospel Car, with the words of the gospel painted on its sides. She preached in tents and halls across the American South and East. She was a vivid speaker, with a gift for the dramatic, and crowds were drawn by her. She prayed for the sick, and many were reported to be healed. Over time she moved west and settled in Los Angeles. In 1923 she opened Angelus Temple, a church seating more than five thousand. It was full several times a day.

She founded a Bible college, a radio station and a large network of social ministries. During the Depression the church fed thousands of hungry families in Los Angeles every week. In 1927 she began the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, a denomination based on four themes of Christ as Savior, Baptizer, Healer and Coming King. It has spread to many nations and has millions of members. She was among the first women to preach to huge crowds, and she was one of the first Christian leaders to use radio. She pioneered new methods of reaching the public.

Her ministry was marked by controversy. In May 1926, she disappeared while swimming at a beach near Los Angeles. Her followers feared she had drowned, and a search was made for days. Then she walked out of the desert in Mexico, saying she had been kidnapped and had escaped. Many doubted her story, and newspapers suggested that she had run off with a man. A grand jury looked into the matter, and the charges were dropped, but the shadow stayed with her. She also went through a brief and unhappy third marriage, to David Hutton, which ended in divorce in 1934, and she suffered from fatigue and from breakdowns.

Those who view her life with care see both the gifts and the damage. She had a real compassion for the poor and an energy that few could match. She also made mistakes, ran into conflict with her mother and her daughter, and lived under heavy strain. She was a woman of great talent who was often alone.

She died on September 27, 1944, in Oakland, California, from an overdose of sleeping pills, which the coroner ruled accidental. She was fifty-three. The movement she began has outlived her. Her life shows the power and the weakness of a gifted person who is also a sinner who needs grace.