Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty dead at 57

TULSA, Okla., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The Rev. Billy Joe Daugherty, whose television show reached more than 100 million households, has died in Houston at the age of 57, church officials said.

Daugherty died Sunday at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center after being diagnosed with cancer last month, The Tulsa (Okla.) World reported Monday.

"Billy Joe Daugherty was not just a landmark in Tulsa, but a spokesman for the Gospel beloved around the world," Mark Rutland, the president of Oral Roberts University said in a statement Sunday.

Daugherty oversaw the 17,000-member Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, the television show "Victory in Jesus" and had written more than a dozen books on evangelical Christianity with his wife and co-Pastor Sharon Daugherty.

Originally from Magnolia, Ark., he also founded the International Victory Bible Institute and the Tulsa Dream Center, which provides food, clothing and medical aid for Tulsans, The World reported.

He is survived by his wife; his mother, Iru Daugherty; and four children, all of them involved in his ministries.