Ruth Graham, Chinese-American author, poet, and painter (b. 1920)
Ruth McCue Bell Graham (June 10, 1920 – June 14, 2007) was an American Christian author, most well known as the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. She was born in Qingjiang, Jiangsu, Republic of China, the second of five children. Her parents, Virginia Leftwich Bell and L. Nelson Bell, were medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles (480 km) north of Shanghai. At age 13 she was enrolled in Pyeng Yang Foreign School in Pyongyang, Korea, where she studied for three years. She completed her high school education at Montreat, North Carolina, while her parents were there on furlough. She graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.
The Grahams met at Wheaton College and were married in the summer of 1943, shortly after their graduation. Ruth Graham became a minister's wife for a brief period in Western Springs, Illinois. She lived out the rest of her life in Montreat, North Carolina. The Grahams have five children: Virginia (Gigi), Anne, Ruth, Franklin, and Nelson Edman (Ned), 19 grandchildren, and numerous great grandchildren.
Graham wrote Our Christmas Story, Sitting by My Laughing Fire, It's My Turn, The Legacy of a Pack Rat, Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Clouds Are the Dust of His Feet, One Wintry Night, Coffee and Conversation with Ruth Bell Graham and Gigi Graham Tchividjian, Collected Poems, Mothers Together. and Prayers from a Mother's Heart. Her most recent books published in 2001 are, Never Let It End: Poems of a Lifelong Love published by Baker Books, Footprints of a Pilgrim: The Life and Loves of Ruth Bell Graham, published by Word Publishing and A Quiet Knowing, published by W Publishing Group.