OCR Text |
Show 4. o B Graharn y N. Bell by Joseph Belshazzar is only unfriendly member of household. m ,4 among the cables and cameras, wagging his tail & I'll hWM . is lucid, and doesn't always agree with her husband on points of theology. She's never been baptized which offends Billy's Baptist sensibilities so much that he has a standing offer of $100 to any minister able to convince her she should take this sfcp7 The" chances are remote that Billy will ever have to pay off. When Ruth accompanied Billy to England a few years back, he suggested that the more conservative church people in England might object to her wearing lipstick. Ruth replied: "It doesn't seem to me to be a. credit to Christ to be drab. And it's not fair to the people who have to look at you." In the Graham home, the Bible stays open in the kitchen all day long, every day. Whenever she has a spare moment, Ruth can be found reading it. She is equal to most problems which come up at home in Billy's absence, but occasionally she hits a crisis which requires a masculine hand. Last year, for example, the Grahams adopted a German police dog to keep Belshazzar company. Belshazzar was outraged, and after a few honest attempts to make friends, the police dog ignored him. Relations deteriorated steadily until the inevitable clash. When it came, it was bloody, and Ruth had to watch helplessly while the two mastodons almost killed each other. Uappily, both dogs survived, and Ruth regretfully had to send the police dog to greener pastures.' Brooding about this, Billy said of Belshazzar: "I guess he's strictly a one-ddog." Belshazzar' also gave the intrepid Ed Murrow a hard time when the Grahams were the subject of one of his "Person-to-Persoshows. Throughout the rehearsals, the ubiquitous Belshazzar threshed well-educat- ed og n" all kinds of furiously and knocking helter-skelt- er sensitive apparatus. The technicians appealed to Murrow for help, and Ed reluctantly banished Belshazzar as too unpredictable for live television. Billy Graham almost always has part of his family with him during his crusades. But they are never thrust forward. When Ruth is along, the children at home are looked after by Ruth's parents, who live close by in Montreat The Grahams are very close as a family. ("I never preach a sermon," says Billy, "without discussing it first with Ruth.") Because Montreat is small and populated mainly by retired missionaries, the children have few neighborhood friends their own age. They are also rather isolated in their mountain retreat, except during the Summer months when the hills are full of children, attending the religious conference held in the area. As a result, the Graham children have become and do many as a unit things together family especially when self-suffici- ent Billy is home. "He really has fun with his kids," one of his staff ' v' members told me. , The. newest Graham child, Nelson, was.bonTearly this year. Because of the baby, Ruth was unable to be with Billy on his California crusade the first one she has missed completely Virginia (GiGi), 12; Anne, 9; Ruth (Bunny), 7; 5, are the 1 and-Frankli- n, other Graham children. All except young Franklin have accompanied their father on one of his crusades. Franklin will, get his turn next year when Billy expects to take him to Australia. The Grahams have disciplinary problems,"just like any other parents. "But," says Billy, "Ruth takes care of most of the discipline. I'm gone so much that I. hate to come home just as a disciplinarian." "That may be so," said Virginia, who was listen- -, ing, "but he gets in on it pretty often, too." "We try to make the discipline fit the child," Billy explained. "They can't all be handled the same way But there are three things we don't tolerate with any of them: talking back to their parents; deliberate disobedience; and not telling the truth." in their home, it is Although they supervised and rationed for the children. On school nights (the girls go to a private school in Asheville), each Graham child is allowed one half-hoproOn ends the week and this is gram. Summer, during extended to two programs per evening, provided they are on the Graham "approved list." The Grahams also have some definite ideas on have-televisi- on ur how to bring up teen-age- rs ideas they plan to children. on own their practice "Except for group parties," says Billy, "I think . that 16 is young enough for children to start dating. And I don't think they should get involved with going steady before they're 20, at least. Going steady is caused by insecurity and lack of parental affection. College is soon enough for a serious love affair." is no around home. "The only job like that for which I have any facility," he told me, "is milking cows and Dilly Graham 7 there isn't much demand for that around our house. Besides, Ruth is so good at odd jobs, I don't need to know how." This is no rationalization on Billy's part" The astounding Ruth Graham is an accomplished electrician, plumber, and painter in addition to handling a sewing machine like a professional. For several years before the Grahams built their new home, Ruth clomped about the nearby hills using her Jeep where she could and walking where the Jeep wouldn't go searching out abandoned log cabins. She bought several of these relics for almost nothing and used the logs to make up the facade of the new Graham residence. THe interior carries along this early American motif perhaps even carries it too far, Billy says. 'I still don't think there's a really comfortable chair in the place," he says stubbornly, "but I like it much better now than I did at first One thing I insisted on from the beginning: I gave Ruth her way in the rest of the house as long as she fixed up my study comfortably.,i .... The interior floors are of rough-hew- n boards, the d, and the furnishings mainly walls discards which Ruth rescued from American early all over the country, repaired, refinished, and put" to use in the Graham home. Even the rail fence around the house was resurrected from an old Carolina cabin which Ruth purchased for $50. " The Graham family finances are handled entirely j. by Ruth. Billy's salary of $15,000 per year paid by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. of Minneapolis goes directly to Ruth for the operation of the Graham household. Billy carries only $100 or so in pocket money with him All his expenses are paid on the road, either by the association or the local group sponsoring the crusade. Money that Billy makes from such outside activities as magazine writing is contributed ttf the' association or. to some favorite charity or religious activity. wood-panele- Family wWfcty, September M. 195 |