Dr. Bell, surgeon and medical missionary, with his family in China; Ruth standing on left
National and international tributes to Ruth Bell Graham since her death June 14 include the remembrances of a retired Presbyterian couple in Stone Mountain, Ga., G. Thompson “Tommy” Brown and his wife, Mardia Hooper Brown. “We knew and loved her. She was always cheerful,” he says.
The Browns were “missionary kids” in China with Ruth and her siblings in the 1920s and 30s when their parents served in the Southern Presbyterian Mission. Because of the dangers and famine in China in those years, the children didn’t see their MK friends often, but got together at the annual mission meetings, he recalls. His parents were the late Frank and Charlotte Brown and her parents were the late Annis and Joseph Hopper.
Mardia and Ruth went to Pyongyang (now in North Korea) as boarding school students. “Ruth was a favorite … I looked up to her,” says Mardia. “Ruth had a prayer group and I went to that, She was very devout.”
Tommy Thompson remembers the Bell family mainly for their ties during furlough times at Montreat, N.C. When the missionary children came back to America for college, they would stay at Collegiate Home in Montreat for holidays. It was next door to the Bell home. The Bell family settled in Montreat when they could no longer serve in Asia. When China missionaries were at Montreat for meetings, there would always be a picnic on the lawn of the Bells’ house, the Browns remember.
When missionary kids were around, Dr. Bell would take them to baseball games in Asheville, he recalls.
In 1943, the Browns came to Montreat to marry, three weeks before Ruth married Billy Graham. They later served as missionaries in Korea. Dr. Thompson was director of international missions for the PCUS 1973-1981 and taught world Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary 1981-1989 after which he retired.
Editor’s Note: Consult the OUTLOOK Web site for more articles on the death and funeral of Ruth Bell Graham.
