Mr Graham who passed on yesterday, has preached the gospel to more number people in live audiences than anyone else in the world, about 215 million people worldwide have once listened to him.



Here are other Interesting Facts about Billy Graham (1918 – 2018)


His formal name was William Franklin Graham Jr. Born November 7, 1918, he grew up on his family’s dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina.

Graham said he grew up dreaming of becoming a professional baseball player but “The talent for baseball obviously was not there.”

The later famous preacher was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was considered “too worldly”

Aged 14 in 1933 during the end of alcohol prohibition in the United States, Graham’s father forced him and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they got sick This created such an aversion that both avoided alcohol and drugs for the rest of their lives.

At the age of 15, a young Graham made a personal commitment to Christ at a tent revival meeting featuring traveling evangelist Mordecai Ham.

Billy Graham held his first citywide crusade in 1947 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The mass meetings attracted thousands of people in one venue to hear Graham speak. He popularized the use of the term ‘crusade’ for his meetings named after the Christian crusaders who captured Jerusalem.

In 1954 aged 36, Graham held the biggest crusade London has ever seen. On March 1, about 120,000 people trooped into Wembley to hear Graham speak.

The stadium administrator for the first time, allowed people to stand on the pitch. Up to 1 million people in total attended the crusade over the coming days.

Graham preached to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories throughout his 80-year ministry and reached even more via mass media.

In his six decades of television, the televangelist was principally known for hosting the annual Billy Graham Crusades , which he began in 1947, until he concluded in 2005, at the time of his retirement.

During his crusades, he was known to always announce an ‘altar call’ for new converts, frequently along with the hymn, ” Just As I Am.” He was also popular for his holding the bible in one hand, waving it and and exclaiming over the mic,“the bible says…”

Graham’s role as a counselor to American presidents was widely known. But perhaps most extraordinary is just how many presidents he has advised. Graham has met with every occupant of the Oval Office since 1950, starting with Harry Truman, which amounts to 12 of the 43 men who have ever served as President.

Tagged an informal Pastor to Presidents Graham was credited with helping George W. Bush stop drinking. The first time the pair met, Bush, who was much younger at the time, was drunk after having several beers and glasses of wine, he told CNN. His father, George H.W. Bush, invited the preacher to the family’s compound in Maine. The pair spoke about religion, which helped start a turning point in young Bush’s life.


In the summer of 1957, Graham preached nightly for 16 consecutive weeks in New York’s Madison Square Garden to a packed audience. He shared the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah from the Bible, substituting “New York” for the names of the cities of sin, according to the New York Times.

Graham was a friend to civil rights legend, Martin Luther King and in 1963, he posted bail for King to be released from jail during the Birmingham campaign .

He became a target of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s after planning an integrated crusade in Birmingham, Alabama in the aftermath of a church bombing that killed several black children. The clan repeatedly knocked down his meeting bill-posts and he had to use police protection during his travels and meetings.

He repeatedly refused to visit Apartheid South Africa. When he did during his first crusade there in 1973, he openly denounced apartheid . Graham also corresponded with imprisoned South African leader Nelson Mandela during the latter’s 27-year prison sentence.


Hour of Decision, his weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years.

Graham received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989, the only Faith preacher to do so.

He won Good Housekeeping’s Most Admired Men Poll, in 1997. He became No. 1 for five years in a row and was 16 times in top 10.

The preacher regarded as one of the most influential men of the 20th century, was repeatedly on Gallup’s list of most admired men and women . He appeared on the list 60 times since 1955, more than any other person in the world.

In 2001, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).


Billy and Ruth Graham
To eliminate the suspicion of infidelity, Graham vowed never to meet, travel or eat alone with any woman other than his wife.

His wife, Ruth Graham died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87. The Grahams were married for almost 64 years.



At the time of Ruth Graham’s death, it was announced that they would be buried at the Billy Graham library site.

Graham suffered from Parkinson’s disease since 1992. He said his planned retirement in 2005 was because of his failing health.

Even when he stopped preaching was still writing books, granting interviews and also maintained his newspaper advice column ‘Graham’s My Answer’ which appeared in newspapers for more than 60 years as of 2017.

Graham died on February 21, 2018 at his home in Montreat, North Carolina at the age of 99.

His son, Franklin Graham Jr. is now the leader of his evangelistic ministry and head of several foundations including the charity, Samaritans Purse.

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