Overview

• Dolores “Dodie” Osteen died of natural causes at her home on July 30 at age 91.
• Her son Joel Osteen shared the news on social media, honoring her as “Mama Dodie” and the family’s cherished matriarch.
• She and her husband, the late Pastor John Osteen, launched Lakewood Church in 1959, growing it from a small Houston feed store into one of the world’s largest evangelical congregations.
• Her 1986 memoir “Healed of Cancer” became a defining testimony after she overcame a terminal liver cancer diagnosis first delivered in 1981.
• Her family has not yet announced funeral arrangements, and congregants are preparing to honor her legacy as Joel Osteen continues leading the church.