Sister Paula (born Larry Nielsen, 1938 in Portland, Oregon), is "America's foremost transgendered evangelist". As a high school student in 1952, she was riveted by the story of Christine Jorgensen, the first male to female transsexual. Along with her fascination with Jorgensen, Nielsen knew that she desperately wanted to assume a female identity. After high school, Nielsen spent a few years cross-dressing and shortly thereafter, adopted Paula after the popular song, "Hey, Hey Paula".