Evangelist. Aimee Semple McPherson was born in Salford, Ontario, Canada to James Morgan and Mildred Ona Kennedy (née Pearce); her father was a farmer and her mother was a minister with the Salvation Army. In 1907, Aimee was converted to Evangelism at a tent revival conducted by Robert James Semple who, the following year, would become her first husband. In 1910, Robert Semple died of malaria during a mission to China while Aimee recovered and later gave birth to their daughter, Roberta Star Semple. Upon her return to America, she married her second husband, Harold Stewart McPherson in 1912; this marriage produced a son, Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson, but ended in divorce in 1921. On her own, Aimee began an itinerant revival ministry. She arrived in Los Angeles, California in 1918 driving an Oldsmobile dubbed the "Gospel Car" which signalled a flamboyant and controversial life soon to follow. She advertised her services in the theater section of newspapers, dropped leaflets from airplanes and entered floats in the Tournament of Roses Parades. She named her new venture in Los Angeles "The Church of the Foursquare Gospel," and it was soon housed in a newly constructed 5,000 seat Angelus Temple located in Echo Park. Her services featured bands, massive choirs, theatrics and dynamic preaching. Radio broadcasts made her a national phenomenon. Scandal ensued, Aimee disappeared from Venice Beach while swimming. She was believed drowned and a funeral in absentia was held at the Temple. Five weeks later, she turned up at in the Arizona desert dishevelled, dazed and dehydrated claiming to having been kidnapped then tortured. Investigation produced no suspects. It was rumored the staged experience and embellishment of the account was merely a cover up for an affair with a former employee. The district attorney (DA) in Los Angeles was not impressed and charged her with obstruction of justice. Aimee stood trial but the charges were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence. In 1931, she married for the third and final time to David Lytell Hutton; this marriage ended in divorce in 1934. Over the years, Aimee experienced many publicized failures in her personal and business life. Marital problems, feuds with her mother and a lawsuit over control of the church took its toll. Her career ended in Oakland, California where she went to dedicate a new Foursquare church and overdosed on Seconal. Her remains were returned to Los Angeles to lie in state at Angelus Temple where over 60,000 passed by her to pay their respects. Thousands unable to gain access to the auditorium waited outside. The church's ministry continues today with foreign missionaries in over twenty countries and an American congregation numbering over 100,000.