American evangelist Billy Graham during his sermon in Dortmund’s Westfalen-Halle on April 5, 1970. (AP Photo/Hinniger)

American evangelist Billy Graham during his sermon in Dortmund’s Westfalen-Halle on April 5, 1970. (AP Photo/Hinniger)

Billy Graham preached simple message, reached millions

“America’s Pastor,” who has died at age 99, abandoned narrow fundamentalism to engage the broader society.

By Rachel Zoll and Jonathan Drew / Associated Press

MONTREAT, N.C. — As a young man, he practiced his sermons by preaching to the alligators and birds in the swamp. At his height years later, he was bringing the word of God into living rooms around the globe via TV and dispensing spiritual counsel — and political advice — to U.S. presidents.

The Rev. Billy Graham, dubbed “America’s Pastor” and the “Protestant Pope,” died Wednesday at his North Carolina home at age 99 after achieving a level of influence and reach no other evangelist is likely ever to match.

More than anyone else, the magnetic, Hollywood-handsome Graham built evangelicalism into a force that rivaled liberal Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in the United States.

The North Carolina-born Graham transformed the tent revival into an event that filled football arenas, and reached the masses by making pioneering use of television in prosperous postwar America. By his final crusade in 2005, he had preached in person to more than 210 million people worldwide.

All told, he was the most widely heard Christian evangelist in modern history.

“Graham is a major historical figure, not merely to American evangelicals, but to American Christianity in general,” said Bill Leonard, a professor at Wake Forest University Divinity School in North Carolina. Graham was “the closest thing to a national Protestant chaplain that the U.S. has ever had.”

In this June 27, 1954 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 Berliners at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo, File)

In this June 27, 1954 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 Berliners at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo, File)

A tall figure with swept-back hair, blue eyes and a strong jaw, Graham was a commanding presence in the pulpit with a powerful baritone voice. His catchphrase: “The Bible says …”

Despite his international renown, he would be the first to say his message was not complex or unique. But he won over audiences with his friendliness, humility and unyielding religious conviction.

He had an especially strong influence on the religion and spirituality of American presidents, starting with Dwight Eisenhower, whom he urged to run for office and baptized at the White House. George W. Bush credited Graham with helping him transform himself from carousing, hard-drinking oilman to born-again Christian family man.

In this May 31, 2007 photo, former Presidents George H.W. Bush (left), Bill Clinton (second left) and Jimmy Carter (right) join Franklin Graham (second right) as they pose with Billy Graham (center) in front of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

In this May 31, 2007 photo, former Presidents George H.W. Bush (left), Bill Clinton (second left) and Jimmy Carter (right) join Franklin Graham (second right) as they pose with Billy Graham (center) in front of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

His influence reached beyond the White House. He delivered poignant remarks about the nation’s wounds in the aftermath of Sept. 11 during a message from Washington National Cathedral three days after the attacks. He met with boxer Muhammad Ali in 1979 to talk about religion. He showed up in hurricane-ravaged South Carolina in the 1980s and delivered impromptu sermons from the back of a pickup truck to weary storm victims.

In the political arena, his organization took out full-page ads in support of a ballot measure that would ban gay marriage. Critics blasted Graham on social media on Wednesday for his stance on gay rights.

Graham wasn’t always a polished presence in the pulpit. After World War II, as an evangelist in the U.S. and Europe with Youth for Christ, he was dubbed “the Preaching Windmill” for his arm-swinging and rapid-fire speech.

In this March 12, 2006 photo, the Rev. Billy Graham (right) and his son Franklin Graham wait for the start of a service in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)

In this March 12, 2006 photo, the Rev. Billy Graham (right) and his son Franklin Graham wait for the start of a service in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)

His first meeting with a U.S. president, Harry Truman, was a disaster. Wearing a pastel suit and loud tie that he would later say made him look like a vaudeville performer, the preacher, unfamiliar with protocol, told reporters what he had discussed with Truman, then posed for photos.

But those were early stumbles on his path to fame and influence.

His first White House visit with Lyndon Johnson, scheduled to last only minutes, stretched to several hours. He urged Gerald Ford to pardon Richard Nixon and supported Jimmy Carter on the SALT disarmament treaty. He stayed at the White House with George H.W. Bush on the eve of the first Persian Gulf War.

His presidential ties proved problematic when his close friend Nixon resigned in the Watergate scandal in 1974, leaving Graham devastated, embarrassed and baffled.

Later, tapes released in 2002 caught the preacher telling Nixon that Jews “don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country.”

Graham apologized, saying he didn’t recall ever having such feelings. He asked the Jewish community to consider his actions instead of his words.

In this May 10, 1966 photo, President Lyndon Johnson presents the Man of the Year award of the Big Brothers organization to evangelist Billy Graham at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo, File)

In this May 10, 1966 photo, President Lyndon Johnson presents the Man of the Year award of the Big Brothers organization to evangelist Billy Graham at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo, File)

At the height of his career, he would be on the road for months at a time. The strain of so much preaching caused the already trim Graham to lose as much as 30 pounds by the time one of his crusades ended.

His wife, Ruth, mostly stayed behind at their mountainside home in Montreat to raise their five children: Franklin, Virginia (“Gigi”), Anne, Ruth and Nelson (“Ned”). Ruth sometimes grew so lonely when Billy was travelling that she slept with his tweed jacket for comfort. But she said, “I’d rather have a little of Bill than a lot of any other man.”

Beyond Graham’s TV appearances and speaking engagements, he reached multitudes through network radio, including “The Hour of Decision,” film and newspapers.

In this Dec. 12, 1961 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham (left) talks with President John F. Kennedy during a call at the the White House in Washington. (AP Photo, File)

In this Dec. 12, 1961 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham (left) talks with President John F. Kennedy during a call at the the White House in Washington. (AP Photo, File)

One of Graham’s breakthrough films was “The Restless Ones,” made in the 1960s, about morally adrift teens in Southern California who found the strength to withstand temptation after attending a Billy Graham crusade.

In the 1950s he created a syndicated newspaper column, “My Answer,” which at its height reached tens of millions of readers.

Early on, he took up the cause of fighting communism, preaching against its atheistic evils. But he was much less robust in his support for civil rights and did join his fellow clergymen in the movement’s marches, a position he later said he regretted.

“I think I made a mistake when I didn’t go to Selma” to join the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he said in a 2005 interview. “I would like to have done more.”

Still, Graham ended racially segregated seating at his Southern crusades in 1953, a year before the Supreme Court’s school integration ruling, and long refused to visit South Africa while its white regime insisted on separating the races at meetings.

President Barack Obama meets with Rev. Billy Graham at Graham’s house in Montreat, North Carolina, on April 25, 2010. (Pete Souza/Official White House Photo)

President Barack Obama meets with Rev. Billy Graham at Graham’s house in Montreat, North Carolina, on April 25, 2010. (Pete Souza/Official White House Photo)

Graham’s integrity lifted him through the dark days of the late 1980s, after scandals befell TV preachers Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker.

Graham had resolved early on never to be alone with a woman other than his wife. Instead of taking a share of the offerings at his crusades, he drew a modest salary from his ministry, which was governed by an independent board, instead of by friends and relatives.

“Why, I could make a quarter of a million dollars a year in this field or in Hollywood if I wanted to,” Graham once said. “The offers I’ve had from Hollywood studios are amazing. But I just laughed. I told them I was staying with God.”

Later in his career, Graham visited communist Eastern Europe. Increasingly, he appealed for world peace.

Billy Graham chats with a Miango woman and a little boy near the Miango village in Eastern Nigeria on Feb. 19, 1960. (AP Photo)

Billy Graham chats with a Miango woman and a little boy near the Miango village in Eastern Nigeria on Feb. 19, 1960. (AP Photo)

William Franklin Graham Jr. was born on Nov. 7, 1918, on a rural dairy farm near Charlotte. His path began taking shape at age 16, when the Presbyterian-reared farm boy committed himself to Christ at a tent revival around Charlotte, North Carolina.

After high school, he enrolled at the fundamentalist Bob Jones College, then transferred to Florida Bible Institute in Tampa. There, he practiced his sermonizing in a swamp.

He still wasn’t convinced he should be a preacher until a soul-searching, late-night ramble on a golf course.

“I finally gave in while pacing at midnight on the 18th hole,” he said. “‘All right, Lord,’ I said, ‘If you want me, you’ve got me.”’

In this Oct 26, 1994 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham begins his sermon in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. He was 99. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

In this Oct 26, 1994 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham begins his sermon in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. He was 99. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

A 1949 Los Angeles revival in a tent dubbed the “Canvas Cathedral” turned Graham into evangelism’s rising star. Legendary publisher William Randolph Hearst had ordered his papers to hype Graham, though the evangelist said he never learned why.

He later embarked on expectation-defying crusades in London and New York, soon becoming a global voice for Christianity.

Health problems gradually slowed Graham. In 1995 his son William Franklin Graham III, then 43, was designated the ministry’s leader.

Billy Graham’s wife died in 2007 at age 87. Graham will be buried next to her at the Billy Graham Museum and Library in Charlotte. There was no immediate word on other funeral arrangements.

Zoll reported from New York. Retired Associated Press Religion Writer Richard N. Ostling contributed to this report.

In this Oct. 16, 1971 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham and President Nixon wave to a crowd of 12,500 at ceremonies honoring Graham at Charlotte, North Carolina. (AP Photo, File)

In this Oct. 16, 1971 photo, Evangelist Billy Graham and President Nixon wave to a crowd of 12,500 at ceremonies honoring Graham at Charlotte, North Carolina. (AP Photo, File)

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Nation-World

FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II looks on during a visit to officially open the new building at Thames Hospice, Maidenhead, England July 15, 2022. Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II is under medical supervision as doctors are “concerned for Her Majesty’s health.” The announcement comes a day after the 96-year-old monarch canceled a meeting of her Privy Council and was told to rest. (Kirsty O'Connor/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Queen Elizabeth II dead at 96 after 70 years on the throne

Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century died Thursday.

A woman reacts as she prepares to leave an area for relatives of the passengers aboard China Eastern's flight MU5735 at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Guangzhou. No survivors have been found as rescuers on Tuesday searched the scattered wreckage of a China Eastern plane carrying 132 people that crashed a day earlier on a wooded mountainside in China's worst air disaster in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
No survivors found in crash of Boeing 737 in China

What caused the plane to drop out of the sky shortly before it was to being its descent remained a mystery.

In this photo taken by mobile phone released by Xinhua News Agency, a piece of wreckage of the China Eastern's flight MU5735 are seen after it crashed on the mountain in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, March 21, 2022. A China Eastern Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in a remote mountainous area of southern China on Monday, officials said, setting off a forest fire visible from space in the country's worst air disaster in nearly a decade. (Xinhua via AP)
Boeing 737 crashes in southern China with 132 aboard

More than 15 hours after communication was lost with the plane, there was still no word of survivors.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. Street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city Sunday and Russian troops put increasing pressure on strategic ports in the country's south following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia's invasion. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Ukraine wants EU membership, but accession often takes years

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request has enthusiastic support from several member states.

FILE - Ukrainian servicemen walk by fragments of a downed aircraft,  in in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. The International Criminal Court's prosecutor has put combatants and their commanders on notice that he is monitoring Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, at the same time, Prosecutor Karim Khan acknowledges that he cannot investigate the crime of aggression. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak, File)
ICC prosecutor to open probe into war crimes in Ukraine

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet confirmed that 102 civilians have been killed.

FILE - Refugees fleeing conflict from neighboring Ukraine arrive to Zahony, Hungary, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians seek refuge in neighboring countries, cradling children in one arm and clutching belongings in the other, leaders in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania are offering a hearty welcome. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi, File)
Europe welcomes Ukrainian refugees — others, less so

It is a stark difference from treatment given to migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

Afghan evacuees disembark the plane and board a bus after landing at Skopje International Airport, North Macedonia, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Macedonia has hosted another group of 44 Afghan evacuees on Wednesday where they will be sheltered temporarily till their transfer to final destinations. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
‘They are safe here.’ Snohomish County welcomes hundreds of Afghans

The county’s welcoming center has been a hub of services and assistance for migrants fleeing Afghanistan since October.

FILE - In this April 15, 2019, file photo, a vendor makes change for a marijuana customer at a cannabis marketplace in Los Angeles. An unwelcome trend is emerging in California, as the nation's most populous state enters its fifth year of broad legal marijuana sales. Industry experts say a growing number of license holders are secretly operating in the illegal market — working both sides of the economy to make ends meet. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
In California pot market, a hazy line between legal and not

Industry insiders say the practice of working simultaneously in the legal and illicit markets is a financial reality.

19 dead, including 9 children, in NYC apartment fire

More than five dozen people were injured and 13 people were still in critical condition in the hospital.

15 dead after Russian skydiver plane crashes

The L-410, a Czech-made twin-engine turboprop, crashed near the town of Menzelinsk.

FILE - In this March 29, 2018, file photo, the logo for Facebook appears on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York's Times Square. Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 elections in a moneymaking move that a company whistleblower alleges contributed to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram in hourslong worldwide outage

Something made the social media giant’s routes inaccessable to the rest of the internet.

Oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Crews race to limited damage from California oil spill

At least 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of oil spilled into the waters off Orange County.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.