Willie Leon Swaggart: What Happened To Jimmy Swaggart’s Father?

Willie Leon Swaggart is the father of American evangelist, singer, pianist, author, and pastor Jimmy Swaggart. Willie’s son Jimmy Swaggart launched the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN), owned and operated by Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. He is the senior pastor of the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He hosts a daily Bible study program on SBN, The Message of the Cross.

Willie Leon Swaggart: Bio Summary

Who Is Jimmy Swaggart’s Father, Willie Leon Swaggart?

Willie Leon Swaggart was born on 15 February 1915, in Mangham, Richland Parish, Louisiana, USA. He was also known as “Sun” or “Son”. He was the son of William Harry “Willie” Swaggart and Ada Beatrice Lewis Swaggart. He was the brother of Arilla Margaret Swaggart Wells. He was a fiddle player who worked for a bootlegger before being drawn with his wife, Minnie Belle Swaggart, to the Assemblies of God.

Willie Leon Swaggart met Minnie Belle Swaggart and eventually made her his wife. They got married in the year 1934, in a ceremony in front of their loved ones. Willie and his wife Minnie were both musicians. They earned a few dollars by playing the fiddle and guitar at dances during the Great Depression. They were devoted members of the Assemblies of God. Willie also became a gospel minister, a Pentecostal preacher.

Willie is said to have established six churches. He also established a ministry in Baton Rouge and was there for 10 years. He was the father of three children from his marriage to Minnie Belle Swaggart. He and Minnie had two sons, Donnie Swaggart and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, and a daughter Jeannette Swaggart Ensminger. The family had just moved to Texas when Donnie and his mother Minnie Belle Swaggart contracted pneumonia.

Unfortunately, Donnie died of pneumonia on the 18th of March 1940, in Rio Hondo, Cameron County, Texas, United States when he was just 3 months old. Donnie was given a pauper’s burial. After Donnie died, the family moved back to Ferriday, Louisiana. Willie’s son Jimmy Swaggart became an evangelist, pastor, singer, pianist, and author. He launched into full-time ministry in the 1950s.

Jimmy later started recording gospel music record albums and transmitting them on Christian radio stations. In the 1960s, he became the founder of a small church named the Family Worship Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The church went on to become a district affiliated with the Assemblies of God. He is the senior pastor of the Family Worship Center. His Jimmy Swaggart Ministries owns and operates the SonLife Broadcasting Network (SBN).

ALSO, READ: Minnie Belle Swaggart: How Did Jimmy Swaggart’s Mother Die?

Jimmy Swaggart hosts a daily Bible study program on SBN, The Message of the Cross. He launched a daily television program titled A Study in the Word. He opened Jimmy Swaggart Bible College (JSBC). As a musician, he has sold more than 17 million recordings and has received awards and recognition for his musical accomplishments. He has been married to Frances Swaggart since October 10, 1952. They have a son Donnie Swaggart.

Jimmy has also been involved in controversies. He was caught with a prostitute and later asked God and the public for forgiveness. He delivered a speech on live television. “I do not plan in any way to whitewash my sin. I do not call it a mistake, a mendacity; I call it sin. I would much rather, if possible — and in my estimation it would not be possible — to make it worse than less than it actually is.”

“I have no one but myself to blame. I do not lay the fault or the blame of the charge at anyone else’s feet. For no one is to blame but Jimmy Swaggart. I take the responsibility. I take the blame. I take the fault.” Jimmy apologized to his wife Frances Swaggart. “I want to address myself as best as I know how to those that I have wronged, that I have sinned against. First of all, my wife, Frances: God never gave a man a better helpmate and companion to stand beside him.”

“And as far as this gospel has been taken through the airwaves to the great cities of the world and covered this globe, it would never have been done were it not for her strength, her courage, her consecration to her Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.” He added: “I have sinned against you [looking directly at his wife in the audience]. And I beg your forgiveness.” Jimmy also apologized to his son Donnie and daughter-in-law Debbie, the Assemblies of God, the Family Worship Center, his fellow television ministers and evangelists, and the public.

ALSO, READ: Jeannette Swaggart Ensminger: Where Is Jimmy Swaggart’s Sister Now?

Jimmy also apologized to God. “And most of all, to my Lord and my Savior, my Redeemer, the One whom I have served and I love and I worship. I bow at His feet, who has saved me and washed me and cleansed me. I have sinned against You, my Lord. And I would ask that Your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain, until it is in the seas of God’s forgetfulness, never to be remembered against me anymore.”

What Happened To Jimmy Swaggart’s Father?

Willie Leon Swaggart died on 25 April 1998, at age 83, in Clayton, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, USA. The cause of his death is unknown. He was buried at Herron Family Cemetery, Clayton, Concordia Parish, Louisiana, USA. His wife Minnie Belle Swaggart died on 9 June 1960, at age 43, in Mississippi, USA. Sadly, she was in Mississippi having surgery when she passed away from a reaction to the anesthesia.