The Silent Rock Behind a Famous Evangelist
Although Ruth Graham preferred to stay behind the scenes, her impact on her husband was all too evident.
Benedicta Cipolla, Religion News Service | posted 6/14/2007 06:56PM
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Together with her sense of humor and love of practical jokes, Ruth's disdain for the trappings of fame and power kept Billy Graham grounded, friends said.
"When he got home she put him right back on track. She didn't kowtow to him," said Cornwell, who grew up near the Grahams in Montreat, N.C., and first met Ruth Graham when she was 9 years old. "She wasn't the typical spouse who loved being 'Mrs. Billy Graham' in a negative sense. I hate to think what might have happened to him if she had been."
Although Billy Graham acted as an informal adviser to several presidents and the Grahams considered the Nixons and Bushes friends, Ruth was never completely comfortable with the mix of politics and religion. When President Lyndon Johnson asked Graham's opinion on potential running mates in the 1964 election, Cornwell recounted, she kicked her husband under the dinner table, telling him, "You are supposed to limit your advice to moral and spiritual issues and stay out of politics."
"She kept him humble. There were temptations to be a presidential candidate, and other ambitions," said Eddie Gibbs, professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and the training director for a three-month Graham crusade in England in 1984. "But he always came back, saying my calling is as an evangelist. My hunch is that she was the steadying influence in the background."
While Billy Graham ministered to millions, Ruth, in keeping with her dislike of the spotlight, tended toward a smaller scale. She befriended convicted felons, troubled teens and drug addicts, and in 1975 convinced Graham to help evacuate a 16-member family from Vietnam. Several years ago, she slowed her ministries due to failing health.
Though she rarely spoke of those she aided, her efforts could not have helped but reinforce for Graham her talents and her faith, reminding him of his belief that "our marriage was planned in heaven," as he wrote to Ruth in the 1963 letter quoted in Cornwell's book.
"She never tried to be a theologian or lecture him. It was just a quiet influence," Cornwell said in an interview. "It was not what she said, but what she was."
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Related Elsewhere:
Christianity Today published an obituary for Ruth Graham on June 14, 2007.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also has a memorial site for Ruth. The press release above is from A. Larry Ross and Associates, Billy's longtime personal publicist and spokesman. Ross's site has photos, video, and more information.
The Billy Graham Center Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, (not to be confused with the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C.) has wonderful photos, recordings, and documents.
Obituaries on Ruth Bell Graham include those from the Associated Press, Asheville Citizen-Times, Charlotte Observer, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, News14 Charlotte, and other sources.
CT Liveblog has more responses to Graham's death, including:
Ruth Graham's epitaph
Kay Warren on Ruth Graham | "I have admired her all my life"
Ruth's children remember their mom | "For her, self-sacrifice was a way of life."
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