Into and out of Superior Court in Los Angeles last week moved an ugly squabble which has long rent the Angelus Temple of Mrs. Aimee Semple McPherson (TIME, Jan. 18). Moody Sister Aimee, beset by fears that people are trying to wrest control of the Temple from her, has succeeded in estranging her mother Mrs. Minnie ("Ma") Kennedy, her daughter Roberta
Semple and her onetime colleague Mrs.
Rheba Crawford ("Angel of Broadway") Splivalo. On Sister Aimee's side remain her son Rolf, her business manager Giles Knight, her attorney Willedd Andrews.
Compounded of jealousies and cross-accusations as to what who had said about whom, the quarrel got into court because Daughter Roberta thought she had been slandered. Attorney Andrews, she said, had publicly stated that Sister Aimee had been "threatened, intimidated, coerced and blackmailed"—presumably by her daughter. For this Daughter Roberta demanded $150,000 damages from her mother's counsel.
With tears, sneers, shouts and two swoons (by Sister Aimee), the case was argued, no one sticking very long to the main point. After brief deliberation, Judge Clarence Kincaid decided that Daughter Roberta had been slandered $2,000 worth, warned everyone concerned against continuing "such warfare." The advice was not heeded. This week Sister Aimee, like Father Divine (see above), was to appear again in court. This time she is defendant in a $1,080,000 slander suit brought by Sister Rheba. Since the line-up of witnesses will be about the same, the anti-Aimee faction took hope from Daughter Roberta's victory last week. But Sister Aimee exhibited little chagrin. With a substantial number of her Temple addicts still loyal, she put on a garment of white chiffon which could be swished out behind her like a pair of wings, and preached a stirring sermon about her Cause. Into a "defense pot'' Four Square Gospelers tossed money, jewelry, gold bridgework.