Oral Roberts

==Personal life==
Roberts was married to Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock (1917–2005) for 66 years from December 25, 1938, until her death from a fall, at the age of 88, on May 4, 2005.<ref>{{cite news |title=Evelyn Roberts, wife of Oral Roberts, dies|url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=050504_Br_Robertsdeath|newspaper=Tulsa World|date=May 4, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Oral Roberts 1918-2009: Legacy|url=http://tulsaworld.com/app/oralroberts/pdf/specialsection.pdf|newspaper=Tulsa World|date=December 20, 2009|page=6}}</ref> Their daughter Rebecca Nash died with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash, in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977.<ref>{{cite web|title=The "Heaven Has a Floor" Crash: February 11, 1977|url=http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Roberts-N59838.htm|publisher=Check Six|location=[http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Anthony,_Kansas&params=37_04_00_N_98_02_17_W_region:US_type:city Location: about 6 miles south of Anthony, KS]|date=2002|at=Updated December 7, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Stefanic |first=Vern |title=Oral Roberts daughter, 5 others die |url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleid=20080325_222_84228 |newspaper=Tulsa World |date=February 11, 1977 |at=Last modified March 25, 2008}}</ref> Their elder son, Ronald Roberts, died by suicide on June 10, 1982, five months after receiving a court order to undergo counseling at a drug treatment center and six months after [[coming out]] as gay.<ref>{{cite news |title=Oral Roberts's Son, 37, Found Shot Dead in Car |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E3D61F38F933A25755C0A964948260 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 10, 1982 |access-date=April 1, 2007}}</ref><ref name="talk">{{cite web |title=Oral Roberts' Gay Grandson: "It Gets Better." |url=http://talkaboutequality.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/oral-roberts-gay-grandson-it-gets-better/ |publisher=Talk About Equality |date=October 25, 2010}}</ref><ref name="out">{{cite news |last=Taffet |first=David |title=Oral Roberts' gay grandson speaks out |url=http://www.dallasvoice.com/oral-roberts’-gay-grandson-speaks-out-1032465.html |url-status=dead |publisher=dallasvoice.com |date=July 8, 2010|access-date=5 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830113803/http://www.dallasvoice.com/oral-roberts%E2%80%99-gay-grandson-speaks-out-1032465.html|archive-date=30 August 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The other two Roberts children are son [[Richard Roberts (evangelist)|Richard]], an evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University, and daughter Roberta Potts, an attorney.

Roberts died of complications from pneumonia on December 15, 2009,<ref name="KTUL">{{cite news |title=Oral Roberts Dies at Age 91 |url=http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/1209/687732.html |publisher=[[KTUL-TV]] |date=December 15, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091218043126/http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/1209/687732.html |archive-date=December 18, 2009 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Bill|last=Sherman|title=Oral Roberts dies|url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20091215_18_0_OralRo862074|newspaper=Tulsa World|date=December 15, 2009}}</ref> at the age of 91. He had been "semi-retired" and living in [[Newport Beach, California]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Lobdell |first=William |title=Oral Roberts dies at 91; televangelist was pioneering preacher of the 'prosperity gospel' |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-oral-roberts16-2009dec16,0,3407978.story |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=December 16, 2009}}</ref> He was interred next to his wife at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma (the same cemetery where [[T. L. Osborn]] would be interred nearly four years later).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.charismamag.com/site-archives/570-news/featured-news/8415-thousands-gather-to-remember-oral-roberts|title=Thousands Gather to Remember Oral Roberts|publisher=Charisma Magazine|date=December 21, 2009|access-date=February 19, 2016|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194926/http://www.charismamag.com/site-archives/570-news/featured-news/8415-thousands-gather-to-remember-oral-roberts|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to a 1987 article in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' by [[Martin Gardner]], the "most accurate and best documented [[biography]]" is ''Oral Roberts: An American Life'', an objective study by [[David Edwin Harrell Jr.]], a historian at [[Auburn University]].