And Then There’s the Other Sherrill Family

Reeford Sherrill, a very tall, well-groomed, white-haired Texan with a striking stage presence, went from being a small-time preacher to the position of right-hand “front man” for Peter Popoff. He says he and his wife, Pam, had to leave the Popoff operation when he discovered that it was, to quote him directly, a “crooked and foul’” system. Pam had first seen Popoff in operation when she was only 14 years old, and she was “thrilled” when first invited to have the opportunity of working with him. Reeford was an old hand in the business. He’d had a church of his own in Mansfield, Texas, just south of Dallas. It failed, and his brother Rod, who at that time was running All-American Video for the W. V. Grant organization in Ohio, invited him to work there. Reeford accepted, and was put in charge of the camera department. He stayed with the company even after Dennis Jenkins, son of faith-healer Leroy Jenkins, left because of the trickery he saw being used to deceive the faithful. Young Jenkins had, and still has, considerable respect for the Sherrills. “I was real surprised to see Reeford stay on after that,” he told me.

An Important Character

If there is a single Svengali behind the evangelist/healers we are discussing, Reeford’s brother, Rod Sherrill, might be cast in that part. He worked in highly responsible and vital positions for Leroy Jenkins, W. V. Grant, and Peter Popoff. He grew up in the same neighborhood as Grant in Dallas. He was in the business well before he brought Reeford into it. He knew about chicanery that he must have felt Reeford and Pam would not have approved of, had they known about it, and he was in fact the originator of much of that flummery. To him, as with all of his efforts, it was “just doing my job.” Let us not forget though that it took Reeford and Pam some time to decide to back out of the Popoff operation after they learned about the secret transmitter Popoff was using. Other things, such as the pre-show interviews with the ailing in the audience and the high-powered money-making gimmicks, didn’t seem to trouble them. Reeford even participated, regularly, in these interviews. Pam, for one, had been told by Elizabeth Popoff (during a crusade in Stockton, California) that there was $2 million in the family vault set aside for a rainy day, and she had seen the endless items of jewelry that had come into Mrs. Popoff’s hands from admirers. But it was many months before she decided that she and her husband had had enough. In all fairness, it was not easy for the Sherrills to quit their lucrative jobs with Popoff. Both Reeford and Rod had families with children to support.

One Broken Promise Too Many

One particular episode seems to have—understandably—angered Pam Sherrill more than most and might have been the final straw for her. It was not unusual, she says, during a service, for women admirers to reach out to place jewelry into Peter Popoff’s hands or pockets as he passed them. During a crusade in Bakersfield, California, a smitten woman gave a diamond ring of several carats to Reeford Sherrill to give to Peter. Later, at the close of the service, Peter gallantly presented it to wife Elizabeth. Noticing Pam’s expression, he promised her, “The next ring I get will be yours!” Not long after that event, an opportunity to fulfill that promise arrived during a Houston crusade, when Pam was approached by a distraught elderly gentleman who pressed a bulging manila envelope into her hands. It was held together with rubber bands and tape. He told her that his wife had Alzheimer’s disease, and he wanted her jewelry to go to the Popoff ministry for God’s work. She thanked him and hurried backstage to present the package to Popoff, fully expecting him to share the bonanza with her. He examined the shining treasure and waved her away, saying that they would discuss it later. He never mentioned it again.