Ruth Graham

Ruth Graham, born on June tenth, nineteen twenty, in Qingjiang, Jiangsu, China, was the second of five children in a family dedicated to medical missions. Her parents, Virginia Leftwich Bell and L. Nelson Bell, served at the Presbyterian Hospital, located three hundred miles north of Shanghai. At the age of thirteen, Ruth was enrolled in the Pyeng Yang Foreign School in Pyongyang, Korea, where she studied for three years before completing her high school education in Montreat, North Carolina, during her parents' furlough.

Ruth's academic journey continued at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, where she met her future husband, Billy Graham. The couple married in the summer of nineteen forty-three, shortly after their graduation. Following their marriage, Ruth briefly embraced the role of a minister's wife in Western Springs, Illinois, before settling in Montreat, North Carolina, where she would spend the rest of her life.

As a prolific writer, Ruth Graham authored numerous books, some of which she co-wrote with her daughter, Gigi Graham. Her literary contributions reflect her deep Christian faith and her experiences as a wife and mother. Ruth and Billy Graham raised five children: Virginia (Gigi), Anne, Ruth, Franklin, and Nelson Edman (Ned), and they enjoyed the blessings of nineteen grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.