It was 100 years ago, on May 18, 1926, that Foursquare’s founder, Aimee Semple McPherson, disappeared while swimming at Venice Beach in Los Angeles. After many search teams tried to locate her, it was presumed she had drowned. To her family’s relief, Sister Aimee reappeared weeks later in Agua Prieta, Mexico, and was admitted to the hospital after collapsing on the doorstep of a local family. She announced that she had been kidnapped and escaped her captors.
Though she maintained and substantiated her story, some had doubts about her kidnapping claim. She was charged by the State of California with conspiracy and fabricating evidence; they believed she had constructed a false narrative in order to cover up an affair. These charges were eventually dropped due to insufficient evidence. Sister Aimee maintained her innocence and never wavered from her story. Neither did those closest to her.
In this never-before-published story, Sister Aimee’s late son, Rolf K. McPherson, who was 13 years old at the time of his mother’s kidnapping, shares what it was like when his famous mother disappeared.
Conditions in Los Angeles were challenging for our family in the mid-1920s. Mother’s ministry at Angelus Temple and around the world consumed much of her energy, and as a result her health began to suffer.
Her heart ballooned, and doctors warned that she could not keep going at the same pace without causing irreparable harm to her body. The thriving ministry God had given her drew support from people who loved her and hostility from those who did not, adding even more pressure to her already overtaxed load.
Mother’s critics seized the opportunity to shame her for any number of subjects from the clothing she wore to the fact that she dared to preach to audiences where men were in attendance.
I tried to mind my own business when I went to school, but sometimes the other children were spiteful and cruel because of what they heard their parents say about Mother. I was about to enter my adolescence and needed some time to be a boy, perhaps in a place where I could ride my horse and go to school with other children who were kind to me.
Friends of our family lived on a ranch outside Sacramento and agreed to have me as a boarder for a few years when circumstances were particularly difficult. The family had a boy a few years younger than me, and it made for a nice family environment where I could live apart from the critical eye of Mother’s detractors.
I had been at the ranch about three years when we received a phone call saying that Mother was missing from a Los Angeles-area beach. At first, Mother was presumed drowned, since she was last seen swimming. I was sad and in shock.
Ministry leaders who supported Mother’s work brought me back home to Los Angeles. At least I would be together with my grandmother and my sister, Roberta, they reasoned. Rescue workers scoured the ocean for Mother’s body and turned up nothing.
Initially, foul play was not considered, although Angelus Temple had received numerous threats warning Mother to stop preaching against gambling, prostitution and drug running in Los Angeles. She encouraged people who had been delivered from vice in the city to give their testimonies on KFSG radio, and to name crime bosses and political leaders who were known to be complicit in criminal behavior.
It was one of the most trying times of my life, a young teenager trying to figure out my own call of the Lord but not ready to be the man of the family, let alone the one to whom the weight of ministry might fall.
Rolf k mcpherson
This really raised the ire of Mother’s enemies and caused even more threats. As time went on, it became clear that someone or some group wanted to silence Mother. They would stop at nothing to keep her out of the pulpit, off the radio and away from her supporters.
Newspaper reporters camped on our doorstep, and we never had a clear path in or out of our home from that point forward. Stories were fabricated to explain Mother’s disappearance, and accusations were made. Although all were proven to be false, they took a toll on public opinion. Worse, Mother was not present to defend herself.
I remember the pain I felt when other ministers in the city preached that Mother got what they believed she deserved. Some called her “Jezebel” and said that God was punishing her for whatever sin they thought she had committed to warrant that judgment. It was one of the most trying times of my life, a young teenager trying to figure out my own call of the Lord but not ready to be the man of the family, let alone the one to whom the weight of ministry might fall.
I prayed that the Lord would bring Mother back to our family and to the ministry. Living at the ranch, I had discovered what life could be like without the ever-present criticism of those who hated Mother. Now, I was a 13-year-old boy, alone and once again facing the torment of the many voices that condemned us and especially attacked my mother’s reputation. The sorrow was nearly overwhelming.
After weeks of innuendo, accusation and personal sorrow, the phone rang. I was elated that it was Mother calling from Douglas, Ariz., near the U.S.-Mexico border. It didn’t matter to me that she was in a hospital. At least she was alive and safe. My grandmother, Roberta and I wasted no time traveling to her bedside, thrilled to hug her and celebrate that she was still with us.
Her return brought an entirely new round of criticism, lawsuits and criminal charges. Mother never wavered from her account of being kidnapped from the beach and held against her will in a boarded-up shack in the Mexican desert. She was in poor shape when she escaped and walked through the hot desert before collapsing at the front door of the Gonzales family in Aqua Prieta, Mexico. Later, in court, Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales confirmed Mother’s harrowing account and her physical condition when they found her.
Still, those who wanted to undermine her ministry claimed she was involved in some perverse affair, and some 16 sightings of Mother were “confirmed” in as many different cities on the same day. Eventually, Mother was fully vindicated.
For a time, her reputation and health suffered from the wild accusations. She would eventually recover from the assault on her reputation. The attack on her health, however, would never be reversed. She would continue to preach, reaching the lost and praying for the sick until Sept. 27, 1944, when the Lord took Mother home to her eternal reward.
This article is adapted from a video interview prior to Rolf K. McPherson’s passing in 2009.
Though her kidnapping and trial created a national sensation at the time, they did not hinder Sister Aimee’s ministry. In the years that followed, she faithfully continued her work at Angelus Temple, preaching to thousands. She continued training others for ministry at L.I.F.E. Bible College and founded a Commissary that fed thousands each week, regardless of their religious affiliation. The ministry she started has continued far beyond her death in 1944.
Because of her faithful work for the Lord, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel continues her mission. Today, there are more than 68,500 Foursquare churches in 150 countries worldwide. More than 143,345 people attend one of the 1,315 Foursquare churches in the United States alone (2025 Foursquare Annual Report). Life Pacific University continues to train and send students, and our modern-day Commissary, Foursquare Disaster Relief, meets the practical needs of those who need it most. In addition, Foursquare Missions International and Foursquare Chaplains International have disciple-makers stationed in the U.S. and around the world to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
