It's over -- Tammy Faye checked out today.

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I met her on five or six occasions back in the 80s when she and Jim were hiding out in Gatlinburg, after it all started unraveling for them. A very rich, ultra-religious Gatlinburg lady , Alma Reagan, invited them to stay there, and gave them a very nice house to stay in for as long as they wanted it (I later met Al Gore there).

Oddly, unexpectedIy, I found myself liking her. She was genuinely sweet and had a kind heart. Jim was a creepy phony.

One day, I was leaving the Sevier County Courthouse and there were Tammy Faye and her son, Jamie, siitting on a bench next to the Dolly Parton staute. I stopped and said hi to them, and we talked for a few minutes. She told me how much she loved Dolly, and how she'd hoped to meet her while she (Tammy Faye) was there. But, she said, she guessed that wouldn't ever happen, now that the Bakkers were so radioactive. I watched from a distance while her marriage ended, Jim went to prison, she remarried, became a gay icon, her son became a preacher and TV personality.

It was painful to watch her wasting away.

She was a good old girl, and the world will be a little duller for her leaving.