Aimee Semple McPherson - Infinite Women

Born: 9 October 1890, United States
Died: 27 September 1944
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Aimee Kennedy

The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).

Aimee Kennedy Semple McPherson was an evangelist, radio broadcaster, and public speaker who innovated new ways to deliver religious messages through mass media.

Aimee Kennedy Semple McPherson was born on October 9, 1890, in rural Canada. Her parents were affiliated with the Salvation Army, and she was involved with missionary work from a young age. She married Robert Semple, a Pentecostal evangelist, in 1908. In 1910, they traveled to China as missionaries, but both became ill shortly after arriving. Aimee survived, but Robert did not. At the time of his death, Aimee was eight months pregnant.

She returned to the United States and, in 1912, married accountant Harold Stewart McPherson. The couple moved to Pennsylvania and had a child. However, she was unhappy with domestic life and still felt compelled to preach. In 1916, she hit the road as a traveling missionary, where her charismatic preaching attracted racially and socioeconomically diverse audiences.

She began making plans to establish a home base in California for the religious movement she was creating. She selected a location, sketched a plan for a church in the shape of a megaphone, and hired architect-builder Brook Hawkins to execute her vision. McPherson influenced the creation of the temple’s stained-glass windows and contributed to the temple’s floor plan, specifically ensuring that several safe exits existed in case of emergency.

Angelus Temple, an imposing concrete and steel building that featured the largest dome in North America, opened to the public in 1923. From this headquarters, McPherson preached to live audiences and over the airwaves via radio broadcasts from the temple’s own radio station, KFSG, becoming the first American woman to deliver a sermon over the radio. She also coordinated charitable outreach, including food drives during the Great Depression.

McPherson was famous for staging eye-catching and theatrical sermons. She dressed up as a policewoman to instruct listeners to stop breaking God’s laws and climbed into a fabricated boxing ring to promise to “knock out the devil.” Her fashionable style, media savvy, and faith healings polarized the public and contributed to her high profile in Hollywood’s social scene.

She was regularly at the center of media firestorms. Newspapers and radio stations detailed her alleged escape from an attempted kidnapping in 1926 and gossiped about her tumultuous private life. Speculation that she was romantically involved with Kenneth Ormiston, the (married) engineer for her radio station, was splashed across tabloid headlines.

McPherson died on September 27, 1944, at the age of 53. Shortly before her death, she’d expressed interest in expanding her platform to television broadcasting, staying on the cutting edge of communications technology.