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 Ruth
McCue Bell began her life in Qingjiang, China, the daughter
of medical missionaries. In China she and her sister, Rosa,
witnessed war tragedies daily. Ruth developed an acuity
for animals and babies and tried to save several young animals
and birds from starvation. Once she found a sickly baby
abandoned in a ditch, as "imperfect" babies often
were in that region. Although her father tried to revive
the baby, he did not succeed.
Ruth
developed a strong belief in God from a very young age and
vowed never to marry. In 1932, she attended school in Pyeng
Yang and was terribly homesick. Her journal writing and
poetry, which she had started as a young child, began to
adopt a sad and lonely tone, mirroring her feelings. While
she was lonely, however, she developed a sense of independence
and self-assuredness that would prove invaluable as she
matured.
Although
Ruth felt that God was calling her to be a missionary overseas,
as she progressed through college she softened her vow that
she would never marry. She dated several men and rejected
a few marriage proposals. Billy Graham, however, fascinated
her and she was instantly drawn to his spirit and dedication
to God. Three months after they had met, Billy asked her
to marry him, just before leaving for a mission trip. On
August 13, 1943, two years after his marriage proposal and
about a year and a half after Ruth returned to Wheaton College,
Billy and Ruth were married.
 Besides
raising their five children in Billy's frequent absence,
Ruth designed their home in Montreat, NC. Often ignoring
Billy's requests when he was at home, Ruth supervised the
workmen and found many of the building materials herself
while the house was being built.
Whether
she was accompanying her husband on a crusade or talking
to someone over lunch, Ruth ministered to people in her
own way. In her younger days, she worried that she did not
meet people's expectations of the wife of a famed evangelist.
However, letters and verbal feedback reassured her that
she was making a difference.
Ruth
was by no means a conventional "preacher's wife."
She rode on a motorcycle during one of Billy's crusades,
and whipped a sign from a man's hand during an antiwar demonstration,
nearly getting arrested. In 1974, six years before she would
return to visit her hometown of Qingjiang, Ruth fell 15
feet from a wire that she had rigged from the roof for the
children to swing from, severely damaging her spinal cord
and suffering from a concussion. Although her resulting
injuries may have slowed her physical movements, she continued
to travel with her husband for years and resumed many of
her activities.
Unfortunately, Ruth was diagnosed with spinal meningitis in 1995. Over the next decade her health continued to decline and she passed away on June 14, 2007, at her home, Little Piney Cove, in Montreat, North Carolina, with her husband and five children at her bedside.
“Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team,” Mr. Graham said of his life-long marriage and ministry partner. “No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support."
“I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together,” Mr. Graham continued. “We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.”
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