Evangelist Billy Graham greets friends June 16 at the Anderson Auditorium at Montreat, (N.C.) Conference Center. Funeral services were held for his wife, Ruth Bell Graham, Saturday afternoon. Burial will be Sunday, June 17, in Charlotte, N.C. OUTLOOK photo by Jack Haberer.
MONTREAT — They affirmed the resurrection, proclaimed the gospel. The familiar, deep voice of George Beverly Shea was lifted in song once again. The crowd sang hymns and nodded in agreement to the preaching. Funny stories abounded — the kind that sisters love to tell on one another, and that children love to tell on their famous parents. Put it together, and the funeral service for Ruth Bell Graham painted all the right colors and touched all the gathered hearts.
Ruth Bell Graham, one of the most famous Presbyterians of our day, was honored and her faith proclaimed in the Anderson Auditorium at Montreat Conference Center June 16.
Born June 10, 1920, in China to Presbyterian missionaries Dr. L. Nelson and Virginia Leftwich Bell, she first came with her three siblings, Rose, Virginia, and Clayton, to the United States when she was seven years old. After returning to China, she attended high school in Korea. The family was furloughed to the U.S. in 1935 and stayed in Montreat, N.C., where she graduated from high school at age 16. Given her young age, her parents sent her back to Korea for one more year of post-graduate study.
Believing herself called to be a missionary to Tibet — and never to marry — she wanted to move right away to the mission field. Instead, her parents sent her back to the U.S. to attend Wheaton College in Illinois. There she met William F. “Billy” Graham. Her sister Rose recounted in the funeral service how the stunningly beautiful Ruth — having “finally,” she said laughingly, “grown out of the ugly duckling stage” — caught Billy’s eye early on in their time at Wheaton. Three months later, Billy proposed marriage. It wasn’t until into the next year that she actually accepted. They were married August 13, 1943 at Montreat Church.
After spending a few years in the pastorate, Billy became a fulltime evangelist for Youth for Christ. The Grahams moved to Montreat to be near her parents. They would make their homes in this mostly Presbyterian community, conference center, and college campus.
In 1950 the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was organized, and Ruth saw even less of her traveling husband.
In 1954, they purchased a 150-acre site, called Little Piney Cove, in the Montreat community and Ruth collected pieces of scrap wood to help build the family’s cozy log house. They raised five children, with the greater burden falling upon her, due to his heavy travel schedule. In spite of his intense work away from home, her love for her husband seemed to know no limit. Daughter Ann Graham Lotz shared in the funeral service how her mother had taught the children to love their father “by the way she loved him herself.”
The house pulsated with activity as the five children had to share the space with pets — she loved them — and with needy overnight guests — she loved them all the more. As was said in the funeral service, she had a special love for the lonely, the misfits, and the lost, and she would open not only her heart but also her home to them.
The house bustled with activity, also, due to the provocations of the prankster mother. Son Franklin shared in the service of their need to shoot rattlesnakes that populated the area near their home, but mom tried to catch them, just for the fun of it.
Through all her years she engaged in serious Bible study and prayer. She loved to teach the Bible and did so whenever she was given opportunity. She also loved to write both poetry and prose. She authored 14 books.
In 1974, while helping hang a rope slide for her grandchildren, Ruth fell 15 feet, suffering a spinal cord injury and concussion. Thereafter she suffered from chronic pain but resumed most of her activities, including traveling with Billy to crusades until the late 1990’s.
The funeral service included stories and reflections from Ruth’s siblings and children. Shea, the ever-present soloist at the Billy Graham crusades, sang a gospel favorite of Ruth’s.
After entering the pulpit, Richard White, the pastor of Montreat Church (EPC) surprised the crowd by introducing the widower. A feeble Billy Graham stood in his place in the first row, expressed heartfelt appreciation to all those present. A standing ovation for the evangelist followed. Then White preached a sermon, focusing on Jesus’ raising of Lazarus. It presented the Gospel with the kind of passion that would make the elder evangelist smile.
Mrs. Graham was buried June 17 on the grounds of the newly opened Billy Graham Library in Charlotte in a simple plywood casket. Franklin Graham bought a matched pair of the caskets after visiting the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, La., in 2005. Inmates there produce the caskets at the cost of just $200, so the poor inmates need not be buried in cardboard boxes.
Left: Franklin Graham tells the rattlesnake story
Right: George Beverly Shea sings one of Ruth Bell’s favorite gospel songs.
OUTLOOK photos by Jack Haberer.
