Jimmy Swaggart, an itinerant Louisiana preacher who became one of the most popular and polarizing Christian televangelists of his generation before a sex scandal — etched in public memory by his tear-streaked televised confession — consigned him to relative obscurity, died July 1. He was 90.
His death was announced in a statement by Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, which did not share additional details. His son Donnie Swaggart, a fellow pastor, said on June 15 that his father went into cardiac arrest and was hospitalized in Baton Rouge.
Mr. Swaggart was one of a handful of televangelists who rose to global prominence in the second half of the 20th century, among them Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and Jerry Falwell.
