Billy Graham | 1918 - 2018

The Rev. Billy Graham addresses a crowd in Seattle during the Graham Crusade in 1976.

Billy Graham delivers a sermon in downtown Los Angeles in 1949, part of a two-month tent revival that drew 350,000 people and launched his meteoric rise to world-class evangelist.

Graham’s 1949 “Canvas Cathedral” tent revival, at Hill Street and Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. The event, and Graham, got a major boost from publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

A poster for the 1949 revival. That year marked a turning point for Graham.

Graham, second from right, on the White House lawn in 1950 with, from left, Jerry Bevan, Clifford Barrows and Grady Wilson. They were praying for President Truman and his handling of the Korean crisis.

Graham opens a 16-day crusade at the Hollywood Bowl in 1951. The evangelist considered Southern California his second home.

Billy Graham preaches in London’s Trafalgar Square in 1954. During the second half of the 20th century, his crusades drew millions. Said one of Graham’s biographers: “No one was more important in legitimizing evangelism.”

Evangelist Billy Graham holds a Bible aloft in the mid-1950s.

The Rev. Billy Graham preaches during a tent crusade in 1955.

Graham and his wife, Ruth, arrive in London in May 1955.

In Kottayam, India, during a 1956 tour of Asia.

Graham preaches at Madison Square Garden in New York on May 20, 1957.

On the steps of Federal Hall during a 1957 lunchtime speech in New York’s financial district.

Ruth and Billy Graham arrive in New York aboard the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth in March 1960 after a 2 1/2-month tour of Africa and the Middle East.

In western Nigeria in 1960. According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn., Graham preached to more than 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories.

Graham sits with President Kennedy at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Feb. 9, 1961.

The Grahams prepare to depart for London aboard the Queen Mary in May 1966.

Billy Graham speaks at Madison Square Garden on June 13, 1969, on the first night of a 10-day crusade.

President Nixon and First Lady Patricia Nixon with daughter Tricia and the Grahams after a White House church service in 1969.

On July 4, 1970, Graham took his message to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Graham was grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena in 1971.

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson chats with the Rev. Billy Graham shortly before the evangelist spoke at Texas Stadium in Irving on Sept. 18, 1971.

Billy Graham and President Nixon wave to the crowd in Charlotte, N.C., during 1971 ceremonies honoring Graham.

Graham delivers the eulogy for former First Lady Pat Nixon at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda in 1993.

The Rev. Billy Graham meets with Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush on Nov. 5, 2000, in Jacksonville, Fla.

Former President Clinton spoke during Billy Graham’s final crusade in 2005 at Flushing Meadows in New York.

In 2005, Billy Graham conducted his last crusade, drawing 90,000 people in New York.

Graham pauses during a sermon at the Metro Maryland Festival in Baltimore in July 2006.

Ruth and Billy Graham in an undated photo. Ruth Graham, who died in June 2007 at the age of 87, was buried in a plain pine coffin at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Her husband will be buried next to her.

Graham speaks during a memorial service for his wife in Montreat, N.C., on June 16, 2007.

The evangelist at the dedication of the Billy Graham Library in May 2007. Writer-critic Elaine Kendall called Graham “the preeminent prophet of this time, the generic clergyman. To millions of Americans, he was religion, the way Kleenex are tissue or Life Savers are mints.”