VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018
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Returning home Billy Graham, preacher to millions, adviser to U.S. presidents, dies at 99
REUTERS | STRINGER | FILE
Evangelist Billy Graham preaches the Gospel to thousands of believers during tonight’s meeting at Bercy’s Stadium in Paris as part of a worldwide crusade, Sept. 20, 1986.
“The moment we take our last breath on earth, we take our first in heaven.” Billy Graham A funeral is planned for March 2 in front of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. He will be buried on library premises next to his wife, Ruth. By Bill Trott Reuters ASHEVILLE — Billy Graham, who counseled presidents and preached to millions across the
world from his native North Carolina to communist North Korea during his 70 years in the pulpit, died last Wednesday at the age of 99, a spokesman said. Graham’s body lies in honor under the U.S. Capitol rotunda this week as Congress pays tribute to a clergyman who counseled presidents and preached the gospel to millions worldwide. Graham, died at his home in Montreat, near Asheville last week. He will arrive at the white-domed Capitol on Feb. 28 Wednesday and lie in honor
there until Thursday. “Members of the public and Capitol Hill community are invited to pay their respects to the late reverend while he lies in rest,” the speaker of the House of Representatives said. Graham preached Christianity to more people than anyone else in history during his 70-year career, reaching hundreds of millions of people either in person or via TV and satellite links, his ministry said. Graham became the de facto
White House chaplain to several U.S. presidents, most famously Richard Nixon. He also met with scores of world leaders and was the first noted evangelist to take his message behind the Iron Curtain, the term used for the communist bloc countries of East Europe and the Soviet Union in the decades after World War II. “He was probably the dominant religious leader of his era,” said William Martin, author of “A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story.” “No more than one
or two popes, perhaps one or two other people, came close to what he achieved.” In a rare trip away from his home in his later years, Graham had celebrated his 95th birthday on Nov. 7, 2013, at a hotel in Asheville, where some 800 guests, including Donald Trump, business magnate Rupert Murdoch and television hostess Kathie Lee Gifford paid tribute. The event featured a video of a sermon that his son Franklin said See GRAHAM, page A4
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