BREAKING ---
Jeremy Blue with Demoss Media confirms to WFMY News 2 that Reverend Billy Graham has died at age 99.
Named after his father, Graham grew up on a dairy farm near Charlotte. He was the oldest of four children. Simple beginnings for a man that would become a household name. He married Ruth Bell in 1943 it was a love that lasted decades. They had five children.
From the gangly 16-year-old baseball-loving teen who found Christ at a tent revival, Graham went on to become an international media darling, a preacher to a dozen presidents and the voice of solace in times of national heartbreak. He was America's pastor.
Graham retired to his mountain home at Montreat, N.C., in 2005 after nearly six decades on the road calling people to Christ at 417 all-out preaching and musical events from Miami to Moscow. His final New York City crusade in 2005 was sponsored by 1,400 regional churches from 82 denominations.
Presidents called on Graham in their dark hours, and uncounted millions say he showed them the light. He took his Bible to the ends of the Earth in preaching tours he called "crusades." Even now, anywhere a satellite, radio, TV, video or podcast can reach, his sonorous voice is probably still calling someone to Christ.
Though Graham's shoes could likely never be filled, his son, Franklin, has taken over in some aspects—leading The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and becoming a confidant of President Donald Trump, including speaking at his inauguration.
But Franklin's message has swayed from his father's, leaving a mixed legacy for the Graham name.
Franklin has mocked both Islam and LGBT rights. He uses his following on social media to raise funds for "persecuted Christians," boycotts businesses that use gay couples in advertisements and blasts the separation of church and state as as the godless successor to Cold War communism.
