McPherson, Aimee Semple
MCPHERSON, AIMEE SEMPLE
American evangelist and founder of the International Church of the foursquare gospel; b. Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, Oct. 9, 1890; d. Oakland, CA, Sept. 27, 1944. As a girl of 17, Aimee Kennedy experienced a religious conversion at a revival conducted by Robert Semple. She later married Semple, and the couple worked as missionaries in Hong Kong until his death. Mrs. Semple returned to the United States in 1911 with her infant daughter and began her preaching career. She married Harold McPherson, a grocer in Florida, but the marriage did not last. "Sister" McPherson settled in Los Angeles, CA in 1918 and built a 5,300-seat auditorium called Angelus Temple. Her flamboyant preaching attracted thousands of followers and considerable newspaper publicity. She founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927 and established a radio station and a bible college to advocate her fundamentalist, adventist, and pentecostal theology. A third marriage in 1931 to a singer in her temple choir lasted four months. After her death, her son Rolf assumed leadership of the denomination.
Bibliography: w. g. mcloughlin, Modern Revivalism (New York 1959).
[w. j. whalen]