Popular US evangelist and one of the most influential preachers of the 20th Century, Billy Graham, has died aged 99.
According to BBC, Graham who became one of the best-known promoters
of Christianity when he began his worldwide mission in 1954, died at
his home in Montreat, North Carolina, a spokesman for the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association said.
In a 60-year career, Graham is estimated to have personally preached to 210 million people.
Graham who reached millions more through TV, became a committed
Christian at the age of 16 after hearing a travelling evangelist and was
ordained a minister in 1939.
He came to wider attention in the United States when he held a two-month ministry in a giant tent in Los Angeles in 1949.
At first ambivalent about the civil rights movement in the US, he
went on to become a supporter in the 1950s with racially integrated
congregations.
Graham avoided the scandals which dogged some contemporary
televangelists. His fiery delivery became more measured with advancing
years and controversy surrounding the techniques of mass evangelism.
Graham, a friend of US presidents from Truman to Nixon and Obama,
preached his final revival meeting in New York in 2005 at the age of 86.