Personal life

Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman was born in Concordia, Missouri, to German-American pare

nts.[1] She was born-again at the age of 14 in the Methodist Church of Concordia
, and began preaching in the West at the age of sixteen in primarily Baptist Chu
rches.[citation needed]
In 1935, Kathryn met Burroughs Waltrip, a Texas evangelist who was eight years h
er senior. Shortly after his visit to Denver, Waltrip divorced his wife, left hi
s family and moved to Mason City, Iowa, where he began a revival center called R
adio Chapel. Kathryn and her friend and pianist Helen Gulliford came into town t
o help him raise funds for his ministry. It was shortly after their arrival that
the romance between Burroughs and Kathryn became publicly known.
Burroughs and Kathryn decided to wed. While discussing the matter with some frie
nds, Kathryn had said that she could not find the will of God in the matter. These
and other friends encouraged her not to go through with the marriage, but Kathr
yn justified it to herself and others by believing that Waltrip s wife had left hi
m, not the other way around. On October 18, 1938, Kathryn secretly married Mister
, as she liked to call Waltrip, in Mason City. The wedding did not give her new p
eace about their union, however. After they checked into their hotel that night,
Kathryn left and drove over to the hotel where Helen was staying with another f
riend. She sat with them weeping and admitted that the marriage was a mistake. N
o one seems to know exactly when the separation took place. In a 1952 interview
with the Denver Post Kathryn said, "He charged correctly that I refused to live with
him. And I haven't seen him in eight years." That would put the separation in 1
944 which is probably accurate. This means they lived together for the better part
of six years."[2] She was divorced by Burroughs Waltrip in 1948.
Ministry
Kuhlman traveled extensively around the United States and in many other countrie
s holding "healing crusades" between the 1940s and 1970s. She was one of the mos
t well known healing ministers in the world. Kuhlman had a weekly TV program in
the 1960s and 1970s called I Believe In Miracles that was aired nationally. The
foundation was established in 1954, and its Canadian branch in 1970. Towards her
latter years she was supportive of the nascent Jesus people movement which a gr
oundswell of interest in Jesus among young teens formerly associated with drugs
and the counter-culture.
Following a 1967 fellowship in Philadelphia, Dr. William A. Nolen conducted a ca
se study of 23 people who claimed to have been cured during her services.[3][4][
5][6] Nolen's long term follow-ups concluded that there were no cures in those c
ases. One woman who was said to have been cured of spinal cancer threw away her
brace and ran across the stage at Kuhlman's command; her spine collapsed the nex
t day and she died four months later.[7][8][9]
By 1970 she moved to Los Angeles conducting faith healing for thousands of peopl
e each day as an heir to Aimee Semple McPherson.[10] She became well known for h
er uncanny gift of healing despite, as she often bragged, having no theological
training.[10]
In 1975, Kuhlman was sued by Paul Bartholomew, her personal administrator, who c
laimed that she kept $1 million in jewelry and $1 million in fine art hidden awa
y and sued her for $430,500 for breach of contract.[11][12] Two former associate
s accused her in the lawsuit of diverting funds and of illegally removing record
s, which she denied and said the records were not private.[13] According to Kuhl
man, the lawsuit was settled prior to trial.[7]
Death and legacy
In July 1975 her doctor diagnosed her with a minor heart flareup and she had a r

elapse in November while in Los Angeles.[14] As a result, she had open heart sur
gery in Tulsa, Oklahoma from which she died in February 1976.[1] Kathryn Kuhlman
is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
A plaque in her honor is located in the main city park in Concordia, Missouri, a
town located in central Missouri on Interstate Highway 70.
After she died, her will led to controversy.[15] She left $267,500, the bulk of
her estate, to three family members and twenty employees.[15] Smaller bequests w
ere given to 19 other employees.[15] According to the Independent Press-Telegram
, her employees were disappointed that "she did not leave most of her estate to
the foundation as she had done under a previous 1974 will."[15] The Kathryn Kuhl
man Foundation has continued, but in 1982 it terminated its nationwide radio bro
adcasting.
She influenced faith healers Benny Hinn and Billy Burke. Hinn has adopted some o
f her techniques and wrote a book about her.[16]
In 1981 David Byrne and Brian Eno sampled one of Kuhlman's sermons in their albu
m My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. The track was entitled "The Spirit Womb," a mis
-hearing of Kuhlman's actual utterance "the spirit world." When Kuhlman's estate
refused to license the use of her voice, the track was re-recorded as "The Jeze
bel Spirit" with an unidentified exorcist's vocal replacing Kuhlman's.[17] The o
riginal Kuhlman-vocal has been released on a bootleg but not officially.
Healing
Many accounts of healings were published in her books, which were "ghost-written
" by author Jamie Buckingham of Florida, including her autobiography, which was
dictated at a hotel in Las Vegas.[18] Buckingham also wrote his own Kuhlman biog
raphy that presented an unvarnished account of her life.[19]
Legacy
For several decades there has been serious debate regarding the authenticity of
Kathryn Kuhlman's ministry. Some would suggest that she was a modern day prophet
exercising the power of God, whereas others would suggest that she was a false
prophet, exercising a "spirit" that masqueraded as God. The debate continues tod
ay with many believers upholding Kuhlman as an important forerunner (including p
roponents of the "Prosperity Theology" & "Faith Healing" movement, such as Benny
Hinn), and with some Christian cessationist apologists, such as[20] Hank Hanegr
aaff of the Christian Research Institute, considering Kuhlman to be an influenti
al forerunner of a false Christianity that robs people of their money and propag
ates a distorted substitute of true Christian teachi