Longtime conservative activist Jerry Falwell died on May 15 at the age of 73.
Falwell was found unconscious in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He was rushed to a local hospital, where attempts to revive him failed. He had dealt with a history of heart trouble.
A voice for conservative Christians, Jerry Laymon Falwell, Sr., founded the Moral Majority in 1979. ( He founded Liberty University—a fully accredited evangelical Christian liberal arts institution—in 1971. )
He constantly infuriated several groups, including the LGBT demographic—no more so than when he seemed to blame the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on 'abortionists,' gays, the ACLU and People for American Way, CNN.com noted.
Legally, Falwell had his share of battles, including a $10 million lawsuit he filed against Penthouse magazine in 1981. In 1984, he was forced to pay gay activist Jerry Sloan $5,000.
In the 1980s, Falwell was supported South Africa's apartheid policy, and eventually called Bishop Desmond Tutu a phony ( for which he later apologized ) .
In 1999, an article in Falwell's National Liberty Journal claimed that the Teletubbies character Tinky Winky might be a gay symbol because the character was purple ( a color that represents homosexuality, the magazine stated ) , sported an inverted triangle and carried a handbag. Falwell denied any connection with the article.
After starting Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg with 35 members in 1956, the church has 24,000 members and his ministries take in almost $200 million annually, according to the Liberty University Web site.
Falwell is survived by his wife of almost five decades, Macel; three children; and eight grandchildren.
