In which the family of a noted songwriter for Tim McGraw and Toby Keith pleads for the return of their father’s hook-book. From the New York Times’ Christopher Maag.
Darlene Bishop, the nationally renowned evangelical preacher, begins her book about how God cured the cancer afflicting one of her brothers with a Biblical verse: œAnd the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.
The book, œYour Life Follows Your Words, is sold in the gift shop of Solid Rock Church, the 4,000-member congregation in Monroe, Ohio, where Ms. Bishop (above) is a co-pastor. She has promoted it on her television show, œSisters, which is modeled after ABC™s œThe View and is broadcast on four cable networks nationwide.
On her Web site, Ms. Bishop promises that the book reveals œhow God healed her of breast cancer and a brother of throat cancer.
Nowhere, though, does she mention, that the brother, Darrell Perry, a successful country music songwriter whom everyone called Wayne, died from the cancer a year and a half ago.
In a sworn deposition responding to two lawsuits filed by Mr. Perry™s four children, Ms. Bishop stated that no doctor ever diagnosed the breast cancer she referred to prominently in her book. Instead, Ms. Bishop testified, she thought that she had cancer in 1986 and that it was cured.
œShe™s lying to people and exploiting my father for her own financial gain, Mr. Perry™s eldest son, Bryan Perry, 36, said in an interview.
After doctors diagnosed his throat cancer in December 2002, Mr. Perry moved into Ms. Bishop™s mansion on her $2.6 million horse farm in Monroe to re-commit his life to God, his sons said.
According to Ms. Bishop™s book, when her brother arrived at her front door, he confirmed that he had cancer, and she replied, œLet that be the last time those words ever come from your mouth.
Mr. Perry™s death raised questions about the ownership of his royalties, his catalogs of songs and his œhook book, which his children describe as a loose-leaf notebook stuffed with lyrics and musical riffs, most of which had not been recorded. The children accused Ms. Bishop™s son Lawrence Bishop II, a musician, of recording two albums that contained a total of five songs copyrighted by Mr. Perry without paying royalties to his estate.