Marshall Applewhite
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| Born: | May 17, 1931 Texas, United States <tr><th style="text-align: right;">Died:</th><td>March 26, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Leader of Heaven's Gate |
Do (born Marshall Herff Applewhite) (May 17, 1931 - c. March 26, 1997) was the leader of the Heaven's Gate cult. He died in the cult's suicide in 1997.
Applewhite was born in 1931, the son of a Presbyterian minister who started new churches and moved from place to place in Texas about every three years. As a child, Applewhite wanted to preach like his father did. He was also very dedicated to music and at his father's urging he pursued a degree in music and pre-theology at Austin College. Though he did not complete his theological studies, Applewhite did complete his study of music. From 1948 to 1952, he was a philosophy major at the College, with minors in English and music. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1952.<ref>"Cult leader a dim memory to former college classmates", Associated Press, 1997-04-01. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.</ref>
Later, in his thirties, in the 1960s, Applewhite led a musical career. He played starring roles in stage musicals in Colorado and Texas, was the choir director at St. Marks Episcopal Church in Houston, sang 15 roles with the Houston Grand Opera, and taught music at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Although he married during this time and had two children, he was fired from his job as a teacher for having a homosexual affair with a student. The official reason given by St. Thomas, a private college, for his termination, was "health problems of an emotional nature." [1]
In 1972, Applewhite's life took a marked turn, when he left his family and met a 44-year-old nurse named Bonnie Nettles. While living in Houston, Applewhite had some trouble with his heart and ended up in the hospital and, according to the nurses, had a near-death experience. While at the hospital, he met Bonnie who convinced him that the experience was for a very special reason and that he could be used mightily in a group about which she knew. The two, never lovers, gave one another playful names such as "bo" and "peep." Applewhite saw Nettles as his superior, and there is evidence that their mental illnesses rebounded on one another within the cult fabric. Later on, "Bo" and "Peep" became "Ti" and "Do", or "the UFO two". Nettles died of cancer in 1985, at which point Applewhite took over the leadership until the cult's suicide.
Amongst Applewhite's radical beliefs was the belief that the surgical emasculation of males was a prerequisite for the particular type of salvation that he believed in, which he and many of his male followers were found to have undergone prior to their mass suicide in 1997.
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