CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Ailing evangelist Billy Graham said Monday he and his wife Ruth are deciding together where they will be buried, an announcement apparently sparked by a recent report the family is feuding over the issue.
“That determination will not be made by our family, our organization or outsiders, but will be ours alone,” Graham, 88, said in a statement released by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham said he and Ruth Graham “have no disagreement about our future, for we know that after we each take our last breath on earth we will be together in heaven.”
Graham issued the statement from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Family spokesman Larry Ross said Graham was receiving the third in a series of three monthly treatments for macular degeneration.
The Washington Post reported last week that Ned Graham opposes burying his parents on the grounds of a museum in Charlotte. The paper said evangelist Franklin Graham, 54, who has taken over leadership of his father’s association, wants the graves to be at the Charlotte museum.