Jimmy Swaggart: Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley's cousin dies at 90

Jimmy Swaggart, who was one of America's most influential televangelists in the 1980s before an affair with a prostitute brought his career crashing down, has died at the age of 90.

Swaggart grew up in a musically talented family and related to  rockabilly pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country music star Mickey Gilley. 

While his cousins achieved significant fame in secular music, Swaggart pursued gospel music and televangelism.

Ironically, both of his talented cousins died in 2022. Mickey Gilley passed away at the age of 86 in May 2022 while Jerry Lee Lewis died at the age of 87 in October 2022.  

In his heyday as a fundamentalist Pentecostal preacher, Swaggart had an estimated global audience of 200 million. Then came the prostitute scandal in 1988. 

With tears gushing down his cheeks, Swaggart admitted to his congregation that he had sinned - without providing details - and begged forgiveness.

A tall, muscular man with chiseled features, Swaggart was an imposing figure as he began his own career preaching on street corners and at rural Pentecostal meetings, filled with singing, hand-waving and speaking in tongues.

By 1969 he was successful enough to start "The Camp Hour Meeting," a radio broadcast, and his star rose higher when he took his sermons to television in 1973.

After the news of his death was announced, thousands of people took to social media asking for the details of Jimmy Swaggart's funeral service.

According to his website, no service was scheduled for Tuesday.