Ex Wheel of Fortune Host Reveals How Rock Hudson Received Christ Hours before His Death
"Yes, it is true that Rock Hudson accepted Jesus Christ on his deathbed. I was staying with Rock Hudson and Shirley and Pat Boone also came up to pray with him."
(Beverly Hills, Ca.)—Susan Stafford, the original hostess of Wheel of Fortune, has revealed how she was present when a Catholic priest led Rock Hudson in the "sinner's prayer" to receive Jesus Christ into his life just hours before his death on Oct. 2, 1985 of complications from AIDS.
Stafford, who preceded Vanna White on the popular game show, revealed the inside story of Rock Hudson's final hours in an interview with me at the recent 10th Annual Media Fellowship International Praise Brunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. (Photo: Pat Sajak, present host of Wheel Of Fortune, Susan Stafford and Merv Griffin)
"Yes, it is true that Rock Hudson accepted Jesus Christ on his deathbed," she told me. "I was staying with Rock Hudson and Shirley and Pat Boone also came up to pray with him."
Susan Stafford, a born-again Christian, said that also there at that time was Fr. Terrance A. Sweeney, a five-time Emmy Award winning producer, an ex-Jesuit priest who was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1973. "Rock was a Roman Catholic and so we called in Fr. Sweeney and he prayed the 'sinner's prayer,' with him and then I prayed as did one of his nurses named Toni," she said. "I later did Rock's funeral."
Stafford, who now has a PhD, has also authored a book on some of her life's experiences. She has worked with famous Hollywood celebrities, with leprosy patients in Third World countries with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, AIDS patients (including Rock Hudson), working as a Chaplain Intern with Dr. John Stehlin in Houston with cancer patients, receiving a PhD in Psychology, and counseling with survivors and families at Columbine High School in Colorado, following the tragic shootings.
She has been called a "Goodwill Ambassador to the World" and that seems to be a fitting title. Describing her life as full is an understatement.
Susan has shared in her book how she has learned (and continues to learn) to deal with the realities of life we all face.
