Billy Graham's wife, Ruth, dies at 87

Ruth Bell Graham, who pursued a vigorous Christian ministry for six decades in the shadow of her husband, the Rev. Billy Graham, died Thursday at her home near Montreat, N.C. She was 87.

Mrs. Graham had been bedridden for two years and in recent days had suffered complications from pneumonia.

In the years that Billy Graham, 89, was crusading for God in large tents and advising heads of state throughout the world, Mrs. Graham was talking one on one with dope addicts and thugs in stairwells and prisons. Hers remained a more private evangelism.

She would tease him out of bouts of depression and keep him true to his preaching mission, advising him to turn down offers from Hollywood and rebuff politicians who encouraged him to run for office. She accompanied Graham on some of his many trips but often managed to slip away to talk Scripture and life with hangers-on who caught her eye.

"Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team," Billy Graham said Thursday in a statement. "No one else could have borne the load that she carried. ... My work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support."

Over the years, Mrs. Graham taught a Bible course at the local Presbyterian college. She oversaw construction of the family home and a spiritual retreat and training center nearby. She reared five children virtually single-handedly because her husband was frequently on the road. She wrote 14 books of poetry and essays on living a spirit-filled life.

And she spent several hours a day reading her Bible.

"She had a faith like nobody I've ever known, more than dad's," said Ned Graham, the youngest child. "I've never seen it falter."

Ruth Graham was born June 10, 1920, in Jiangsu province in China, the daughter of Nelson Bell, a Presbyterian missionary and surgeon.

She met Graham in 1940 at Wheaton College in Illinois. To her delight, he was an ordained minister and as serious about God as she was. To her dismay, he was determined to spread the word of God in this country, not overseas.

She wanted to be a missionary in Tibet and held to those plans during a long and rocky courtship. Ultimately, however, she was persuaded to marry him — and his ministry.

She and her husband had five children — who, without a father's regular presence, gave her fits as they grew up.

"Home life was not easy and not always smooth," said William Martin, a sociologist and biographer of Billy Graham.

Ned and his older brother, Franklin, were particularly troublesome, smoking, drinking, racing cars and chasing girls. Mrs. Graham's motherly way, when they dragged home early in the morning, was not to chastise but to let them know that she had stayed up and prayed for them.

All five of Billy and Ruth's children went into some form of ministry. Franklin assumed his father's role as chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. And all five — Anne, Virginia and Ruth as well as Franklin and Ned — were with their mother when she died, according to an association spokesman.

Mrs. Graham is also survived by 19 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.