Aimee Semple McPherson, one of the most famous Christian evangelists of the twentieth century, published many religious works as well as accounts of her own spiritual journey.

As one of the most famous female Christian evangelists, Aimee Semple McPherson is the subject of a number of biographical accounts, both online and in print. She was born into a farming family in 1890 in Oxford County, ON, and was highly influenced by her mother’s dedication to the Salvation Army. In 1919, Aimee Semple McPherson published her memoirs, which focus strongly on her spiritual journey from her questioning youth to her activities as a forceful and successful evangelist. She notes that her early attendance at the Methodist Church, where her father sang in the choir, reading novels from the Sunday School library, attending movies and dances, and learning of evolution (and “other infidelistic theories” were steps on her initial “downward path” away from her mother’s vigorous Salvation Army orientation. Her theological crisis was solved at the age of 17 when she attended a Pentecostal meeting and was swayed by the exuberance and devotion of evangelist Robert Semple (1881-1910). After convincing her mother of the religious validity of the Pentecostal methods, she converted and married Robert Semple on 12 August 1908; despite this conversion, on the marriage certificate, the religion for both Aimee and Robert is listed as “Salvation Army.”

After their marriage, Robert and Aimee worked as evangelists in Stratford and London, ON; then Chicago, IL, and Findlay, OH. At this point, they felt they had “to obey the call to China.” Their short months in China were (according to Aimee’s memoirs) inspirational to Robert, who “felt as though he would never return to America.” He was correct: the couple contracted severe malaria and spent the week of their second anniversary in hospital where Robert died 10 August 1910. Aimee was pregnant at this time, and gave birth on 17 September 1910 to a daughter, Roberta Star Semple (1910-2007). In November 1910, mother and daughter sailed to home to the United States.

With a frail and ailing child and no prospects except her preaching and charity, Aimee married again, this time to Harold Stewart McPherson on 28 February 1912, Aimee stipulating that “all [her] heart and soul was really in the work of the Lord” and that should she be “called” “to go to Africa or India or to the Islands of the Sea, no matter where or when, [she] must obey God first of all.” Nonetheless, she felt that she had betrayed her vocation, and found life difficult, becoming depressed and physically ill. This was just subsequent to the birth of a son, Rolf (1913-2009), on 23 March 1913, and modern interpretation suggests post-partum depression. Her health concerns were physical, however, and she underwent “two serious [and unsuccessful] operations.” As she lay near death after a third, she claimed to have responded positively to the Lord’s voice that had been invoking her to return to her evangelical activities. She did so, leaving her husband behind and taking her two children home to Canada. She began work at a Pentecostal Bible camp in Kitchener (then Berlin), Ontario, leaving her children in the care of her mother. Shortly thereafter, her husband—unable to command her return—joined her in Kitchener. The family then travelled to New England and New York to continue evangelical work.

In 1917, they travelled south by car to Jacksonville, Florida, living in their 1912 Packard “Gospel Car” and preaching in a tent to crowds that gathered from “practically every state in the Union.” They continued their mission in Florida and Georgia. While they were in Savannah, GA, they produced the first issues of , their evangelical magazine. The printing was later moved to Framingham, MA, and in 1919 to Los Angeles, CA, where Aimee’s biography was printed. Throughout 1917 and 1918, the family travelled up and down the Eastern Seaboard. In New Rochelle, NY, in 1918, Aimee and Roberta both succumbed to the influenza epidemic that raged at the time. Roberta was gravely ill, but recovered; the experience appears to have caused Aimee to rethink their lifestyle, as the family then embarked upon a “Transcontinental Gospel Tour” that ended in Los Angeles, CA, where their followers built a large home for the family.

Despite this movement toward stability, Harold had filed for divorce, which was formalized in 1921. Settled in Los Angeles, Aimee preached against secularism and modernization in what she termed her “Foursquare Gospel”; her evangelical ideals soon became the foundation of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. In 1923, work was completed on the Angelus Temple, which Aimee had built to provide a permanent base for her ministries.

Aimee quickly became a prominent public figure. She was the first woman to preach a sermon over the radio (April 1922) and in February 1924 became the first woman to purchase rights to the airwaves from the Federal Communications Commission, establishing her own radio station, KFSG (36). Very aware of the power of media, she produced 78rpm recordings of her radio sermons for sale. She published full-length books—of biography and religious inspiration—as well as reprinting her sermons of whatever length for greater distribution. Some of these published sermons are merely one folded sheet, but some are as long as 64 pages.

In 1925, Aimee was a strong supporter of William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Trial, writing Bryan that the Angelus Temple and its “millions of radio church membership send grateful appreciation of [his] lion hearted championship of the Bible against evolution.” On 18 May 1926, she became the source of a different form of media sensation: she was apparently abducted in Venice Beach, held captive, escaped, and was found crossing from Agua Prieta, Mexico, into the USA at Douglas, AZ, on 23 June. The Los Angeles District Attorney questioned her story, as she showed no evidence of physical hardship, but the charges were not upheld. Aimee then embarked on a “Vindication Tour,” to the overwhelming response of her followers. She was not, however, universally loved: on October 1928, she preached in Royal Albert Hall, London, to the derision of the British audience.

On 13 September 1931, Aimee married David Hutton, but the imprudent marriage ended in divorce in March 1934.

Throughout her colourful evangelical career, Aimee experienced severe highs and lows in both her relationship and her financial situation. Married three times, she was divorced twice; having the funds to build herself a mansion, she nonetheless spent years paying debts incurred by imprudent investments. Struggling with her mother and daughter over control of her Church, Aimee succumbed on more than one occasion to depression and nervous breakdown. Aimee’s death on 27 September 1944 of an overdose of sleeping medication, however, was ruled accidental. Aimee was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA, and control of her evangelical empire passed into the hands of her son, Rolf.