(LATimes) Roberta Semple Salter, 96; daughter of L.A. evangelist
wazzzy
Roberta Semple Salter, the daughter and one-time heir to the pulpit of
the flamboyant Los Angeles evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, died of
natural causes Jan. 25 in New York City. She was 96.
Salter was one of two children of the charismatic and controversial
revivalist and faith healer who founded the International Church of
the Foursquare Gospel and built Angelus Temple, the white-domed
landmark in Echo Park.
The temple, with its 5,000-seat auditorium, was the site of boisterous
revival meetings led by McPherson in the 1920s and '30s. Salter grew
up watching her mother preach before mesmerized crowds on elaborate
stage sets, some of which in later years were designed by Charlie
Chaplin.
Groomed from an early age to succeed her mother, Salter lost a dispute
over church management and was removed from the organization's
leadership in 1937.
Despite the rupture, "she was ferociously proud of her background and
her mother," said her daughter, Victoria. "They loved each other
dearly."
In 1944, when McPherson died, the reins of the church were handed to
Rolf K. McPherson, Salter's half brother, who served as president
until he retired in 1988.
Salter was present for many of the most dramatic episodes in the early
history of the church. The most sensational was her mother's
disappearance in 1926 after going swimming near Venice Beach.
Followers held seaside vigils, but the renowned evangelist was
presumed to have drowned.
During her mysterious absence, the spotlight briefly rested on her
daughter. Roberta, then only 15, took the pulpit a week after her
mother vanished and, before 5,000 congregants, delivered the altar
call made famous by her mother. According to a Los Angeles Times
account of the service, "men, women and children wept audibly" when
she invited them to raise their hands in prayer with the words "Praise
the Lord, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away...."
The Lord had not taken away her mother, however. McPherson surfaced a
month later in Agua Prieta, Mexico, saying she had been kidnapped. She
did not waver from her story - even when authorities suggested that
she had fabricated the abduction to cover up an affair with a temple
employee who had disappeared at the same time - and made a triumphant
return to her flock in Los Angeles.
Salter was born Sept. 17, 1910, in Hong Kong, where her parents were
working as missionaries. Her father, Robert Semple, died of malaria
shortly before she was born. Her mother named her Roberta in memory of
him and gave her the middle name Star because she brightened what
appeared to be a grim future.
Aimee remarried a few years later and, to the consternation of her
husband, Harold McPherson, took up the life of an itinerant preacher.
By the time Roberta was 7, her mother was drawing thousands to tent
revivals across the United States.
Roberta possessed many of her mother's gifts, including a "brilliant
smile," according to biographer Daniel Mark Epstein in his 1993 book,
"Sister Aimee." She led the children's service at many revivals, was
host of a radio program and called herself "Aunt Birdie" in a youth
column for the church newspaper.
Although she spoke with a slight lisp, "this seemed no hindrance to
the young woman's career or to her confidence in front of an
audience," wrote Epstein, who interviewed Salter for his book.
She accompanied her mother on crusades around the world, which
included a tour of the Holy Land shortly before McPherson disappeared.
On one of their trips, the 21-year-old Salter fell in love with the
purser on the steamship they were traveling on and married him in
Singapore, but the marriage ended after three years.
By the time Salter was 24, she had risen to vice president of the
church. Her path to the pulpit blew up in a legal tangle a few years
later, however, when she sued her mother's attorney for slander.
The two-week trial capped a period of financial insecurities, internal
rivalries and management shake-ups in the church that pitted the
pioneering evangelist against her own mother as well as her daughter.
McPherson was led sobbing from the courtroom just before the judge
ruled in her daughter's favor.
"Of all the catastrophes in Aimee's life, the falling out with Roberta
is surely the most pitiful as well as the most difficult to
understand," Epstein wrote.
Contrary to most historical accounts, they remained in contact after
the legal battle ended, according to Salter's daughter. Salter
occasionally attended international conventions of the church and
continued to support it financially.
McPherson, who had mental breakdowns and was beset by a number of
serious health problems throughout her life, died in an Oakland hotel
room Sept. 27, 1944. Authorities said the cause was an accidental
overdose of sleeping pills.
She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale after 60,000
mourners paid their respects during a three-day wake at Angelus
Temple. The exigencies of World War II prevented Salter, who was
living in New York, from attending the funeral: She was bumped from
her flight by military personnel and stranded in Chicago.
After the trial, Salter had been invited to New York to be a guest on
an NBC radio program called "Hobby Lobby," which featured celebrities
and their hobbies. She was subsequently hired as the show's researcher
and in 1941 married its music director, Harry Salter.
For the next two decades, the couple worked as a team on radio and
television shows such as "Stop the Music" and "Name That Tune."
The latter show, which Harry Salter conceived and produced, was a huge
hit in the 1950s that at its peak received more than 20,000 letters a
week from potential contestants. Roberta Salter screened the mail.
In addition to her half brother and daughter, Salter is survived by
two granddaughters and three great-grandchildren. Harry Salter died in
1984.
Hyfler/Rosner
"wazzzy" <enter...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1170590936....@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-salter4feb04,1,449760.story?coll=la-news-obituaries
>
> Roberta Semple Salter, the daughter and one-time heir to
> the pulpit of
> the flamboyant Los Angeles evangelist Aimee Semple
> McPherson, died of
> natural causes Jan. 25 in New York City. She was 96.
>
> Salter was one of two children of the charismatic and
> controversial
> revivalist and faith healer who founded the International
> Church of
> the Foursquare Gospel and built Angelus Temple, the
> white-domed
> landmark in Echo Park.
Wow. And to think this was just in the paid obits of the NY
Times.