The former wife of televangelist preacher Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye Messner used the then-still considerable spotlight of Larry King’s show — on which she had appeared numerous times — to declare that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. (She had previously been diagnosed with colon cancer, which later went into remission.) By the time of her death, Messner — who had spent a big chunk of her life as part of her husband’s PTL (Praise the Lord) empire — had become somewhat of a gay icon for her support of gay rights.
Top 10 Larry King Moments
In his tenure as host of the eponymous CNN interview show Larry King Live, the King has conducted some 50,000 interviews with persons of the moment. As he hangs up his suspenders, TIME takes a look at his most memorable moments from a quarter-century on air.
