Magazine Reports Chanting, Speaking in Tongues : Pat Boone’s Wife Prayed Over Hudson’s Body

Shortly after actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS, the wife of singer Pat Boone went to his home to pray over his body, chanting, “Get the disease out of the body,” according to People magazine.

In an article on Hudson’s last days, the magazine reported that Shirley Boone and members of a Pentecostal church in Van Nuys arrived at Hudson’s Beverly Hills home about 20 minutes after his death was announced Oct. 2.

After chanting, “Get the disease out of the body,” Shirley Boone grasped Hudson’s thin legs and began speaking in tongues, People said.

The night before, Hudson had been visited by a Pentecostal prayer group that included Pat and Shirley Boone and two of Hudson’s nurses.

“For Shirley and me, there had been a sense of being involved from a distance,” Boone said. “We believed that even though there was no medical hope for him, we had a deep spiritual concern and felt that this might lead to a physical answer as well.”

The group prayed for Hudson’s recovery in his bedroom. “After a while, when we were all standing around his bed, he raised up off his pillow and smiled at us,” said Boone. “It was a real turnaround. Because of this sign of rejuvenation, one of the nurses . . . laid out some nice clothes for Rock to wear the next day.”

But Hudson died the next day, and, Boone said, “it was difficult for any of us to believe that there had been a final reversal in what we’d seen the night before. He had already gone, but they prayed at the bedside for some time. . . .

“It’s like the three women who went to the tomb of Jesus,” he said. “They, of course, had different results.”