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Billy Graham: The evangelist pastor's life in pictures
Billy Graham, the pastor who took his evangelizing crusades around the country and the globe, died at age 99.
Prominent preacher
Called everything from the Elvis of evangelism to the General Motors of Christianity, Billy Graham was born on Nov. 7, 1918, and grew up during the Depression on a dairy farm in North Carolina.
A series of popular tent revival crusades in Los Angeles in 1949 gave Graham national prominence. In 1950, he founded the Billy Graham Evangeliistic Association. This photo shows him preaching in the early 1950s.
Family man
Graham embraces his wife, Ruth, and daughters (clockwise from left) Anne, Ruth (Bunny), and Virginia. Graham had just returned from his "Crusade for Christ" tour in New York City in the mid 1950s. The couple would go on to have five children together.
Man with a message
Graham, seen here in the mid-1950s, attended the Florida Bible Institute and was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1939. He then attended Wheaton College in Illinois and graduated in 1943. It was at Wheaton that he met his future wife, Ruth Bell.
Instant attraction
"I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked," Graham is quoted as saying about his future wife, Ruth. "She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." The couple married in 1943, two months after graduating from Wheaton College. Here they are circa 1954 at a London railway station.
Triumphant return
Graham reaches over a barrier to shake hands with some of the more than 200 followers on hand to greet him on his arrival in New York in June 1959 aboard the liner United States. The evangelist and his wife were returning from a six-month tour that included Australia and Russia.
'I love them all'
Graham, left, walks with President Lyndon B. Johnson (center) near the White House in June 1967. Graham has advised 12 sitting U.S. presidents, from a meeting in 1950 with President Truman to most recently meeting with President Obama in 2010. "I love them all," he is quoted as having said, "regardless of politics and regardless of who stands for what."
Counsel of war
President George Bush Stands with Graham on Jan. 17, 1991, outside the White House, the day after the start of the first Gulf War. Earlier that day, upon Bush's request, Graham gave a speech where he said that the present war in the Gulf is a "fight for peace" which will result in "a new world order," as suggested by President Bush.
Condolences to a former president
Graham walks with former President Richard Nixon as they arrive for a service in California following the death of Nixon's wife, Pat, in June 1993. At rear are the Nixons' daughters, Julie and Tricia.
Graham was very close with Nixon, who, after he had lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy, wrote to Graham that "I have often told friends that when you went into the ministry, politics lost one of its potentially greatest practitioners."
Like father, like son
Graham walks onto the stage at the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., with the help of his son Franklin Graham for a rally in October 2004. After initially declining to follow in his father's footsteps, the younger Graham has become a well-known preacher in his own right and is closely involved in running the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
California screaming
Crowdmembers react to a Christian rock band performance before seeing Graham preach on the third night of the Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade in November 2004 in Pasadena, Calif.. The event marked the 55th anniversary of Graham's first crusade in Pasadena.
Ex-presidents gather
"When he prays with you in the Oval Office or upstairs at the White House, you feel he is praying for you. Not for the president," former President Clinton said at the dedication ceremony for the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C.
Graham sits with former presidents George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton during the ceremony in May 2007.
On the campaign trail
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks with the Reverend Billy Graham and his son Franklin during a visit to the Graham's Cabin in Montreat, North Carolina, on Oct. 11, 2012.
Read: Billy Graham, evangelist pastor and counselor to presidents, dead at age 99