15th June, 2007

DAVID ADAMS

The world is mourning the loss of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of renowned US evangelist Billy Graham, who died in the US at the age of 87 earlier this week.

A LIFE OF LOVE: Ruth Bell Graham and her husband Billy. "My father would not have been what he is today if it wasn’t for my mother,” says their son Franklin. “As the wife of the world's most beloved evangelist, she inspired people around the world with her humor, intelligence, elegance, and kindness,” - President George W. Bush.

Speaking after her death, her husband - in a statement released to the press - described her as his “life partner” and said the couple were “called by God as a team”.

“No one else could have borne the load that she carried,” he said. “She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.

“I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together. We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.”

Graham was surrounded by her husband and all five of her children when she passed away at 5.50pm at her homestead in Little Piney Grove, North Carolina, said a statement released by Billy Graham’s spokesman, Larry Ross. She died of complications from pneumonia but had been bedridden for months with a degenerative back condition known as osteoarthritis.

A public funeral service to honor Graham will be held in on Saturday with a private, family-only interment service to be held on Sunday. She will be buried on the grounds of a recently dedicated library bearing her husband’s name adjacent to his ministry headquarters in North Carolina.

President George W Bush and his wife Laura are among those who have paid tribute to Graham. In a statement, the president said the couple were “deeply saddened” by her death and described her as “a remarkable woman of faith whose life was defined by her belief in a personal, loving, and gracious God”.

“As the wife of the world's most beloved evangelist, she inspired people around the world with her humor, intelligence, elegance, and kindness,” he said.

Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a friend of Graham, was reported as saying that Graham's legacy was that she "profoundly touched people's lives".

"We live in a world where, if you're not touching lots and lots of peoplem you're not important," she was quoted as saying on Assist News Service. "If everybody would do what Ruth has done, this would be a better place. She cared about her neighbour."

Graham was born on 10th June, 1920, in Qingjiang, China, the daughter of medical missionaries L. Nelson and Virginia Leftwich Bell.

She attended high school in Pyongyang, (now North) Korea and first went to the US at the age of seven, when her parents were on furlough. Returning to the US ten years later to attend Wheaton College, it was there that she was introduced to “Preacher,” the nickname other students gave the strapping Billy Graham from Charlotte, North Carolina. They were married in August, 1943, following their graduating together that June.

Between 1945 and 1958, Graham gave birth to five children, whom she raised - sometimes single-handedly - while her husband was away on extended national and international evangelistic crusades.

The three daughters and two sons who survive her are all actively involved in ministry, including eldest son Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) founded by his father.

"My father would not have been what he is today if it wasn’t for my mother,” he has said. ” She stood strong for what was biblically correct and accurate. She would help my father prepare his messages, listening with an attentive ear, and if she saw something that wasn’t right or heard something that she felt wasn’t as strong as it could be, she was a voice to strengthen this or eliminate that. Every person needs that kind of input in their life and she was that to my father.”

The author of 13 books, Graham’s first - Our Christmas Story, an illustrated book for children - was published in 1959. Others include the autobiographical Footprints of a Pilgrim.

AT HOME IN NORTH CAROLINA: Ruth Bell Graham has been described as being a vital part of her husband's evangelistic career. But she was also an inspiration to millions in her own right.

Graham’s youngest daughter and namesake, Ruth, has said she doesn’t believe her mother has been adequately recognised for her role in Billy Graham’s ministry.

“How does one live with one of the world’s most famous men?,” she said. “God began training my mother for this position years ago in China. Her parents exercised a profound effect upon the development of her character, and laid the foundations for who she was. What she witnessed in her family home, she practised for herself - dependence on God in every circumstance, love for His Word, concern for others above self, and an indomitable spirit displayed with a smile.”

Ruth Graham said her mother’s “happiness and fulfilment did not depend on her circumstances”.

“She was a lovely, beautiful and wise woman, because early in life she made Christ her home, her purpose, her centre, her confidant, and her vision.”

Ruth Bell Graham’s role in her husband’s ministry was formally recognised in 1996, when they were jointly awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in a special ceremony in the Capital Rotunda in Washington.

Graham has been described as being a “vital part” of her husband’s evangelistic career. She was responsible for naming the “Hour of Decision” - the Billy Graham Evangelical Association’s radio program - and she encouraged her husband to visit and later accompanied him during his historic visits to China.

Graham had been in frail health since suffering spinal meningitis in 1995, a problem exacerbated by the osteoarthritis that began with a fall out of a tree while helping a grandchild fix a swing in 1974.

Bedridden or wheelchair-bound since the late 1990s, Graham hadn’t able to accompany her husband during his last few years of ministry.

She is survived by her husband Billy, daughters Virginia, Anne Graham Lotz, and Ruth Bell and her sons William Franklin, III, and Nelson Edman as well as 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.