He also had a sister, Jeanette Ensminger (1942–1999). Swaggart is the cousin of rockabilly pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis and country music star Mickey Gilley. The extended family had a complex network of interrelationships: 'cousins and in-laws and other relatives married each other until the clan was entwined like a big, tight ball of rubber bands'. Swaggart's parents were related by marriage, as Son Swaggart's maternal uncle, Elmo Lewis, was married to Minnie Herron's sister, Mamie. Jimmy Lee Swaggart was born on March 15, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, to fiddle player and Pentecostal preacher Willie Leon (known as 'Sun' or 'Son') Swaggart and Minnie Bell Herron, daughter of sharecropper William Herron.
Swaggart is widely known for his 19 prostitution scandals. Swaggart is the senior pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries owns and operates the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN).
Jimmy Lee Swaggart ( / ˈ s w æ ɡ ər t/ born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal preacher, televangelist, gospel music recording artist, and Christian author.
