Anne Blue Wills - An Odd Cross to Bear: A Biography of Ruth Bell Graham

Mark A. Noll, Kathryn Gin Lum, and Heath W. Carter, series editors

Long overlooked by historians, religion has emerged in recent years as a key factor in understanding the past. From politics to popular culture, from social struggles to the rhythms of family life, religion shapes every story. Religious biographies open a window to the sometimes surprising influence of religion on the lives of influential people and the worlds they inhabited.

The Library of Religious Biography is a series that brings to life important figures in United States history and beyond. Grounded in careful research, these volumes link the lives of their subjects to the broader cultural contexts and religious issues that surrounded them. The authors are respected historians and recognized authorities in the historical period in which their subject lived and worked.

Marked by careful scholarship yet free of academic jargon, the books in this series are well-written narratives meant to be read and enjoyed as well as studied.

Titles include:

One Soul at a Time: The Story ofBilly Graham

by Grant Wacker

The Miracle Lady:Katherine Kuhlmanand the Transformation of Charismatic Christianity

by Amy Collier Artman

Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybodys Sister

by Edith L. Blumhofer

Mother of Modern Evangelicalism: The Life and Legacy ofHenrietta Mears

by Arlin Migliazzo

Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life

by Nancy Koester

For a complete list of published volumes, see the back of this volume.

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2022 Anne Blue Wills

All rights reserved

Published 2022

Printed in the United States of America

28 27 26 25 24 23 221 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN 978-0-8028-7581-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Excerpts from works by Ruth Bell Graham, copyright The Ruth Bell Graham Literary Trust, are used by permission.

Excerpts taken from Footprints of a Pilgrim: A Journey of Love by Ruth Bell Graham, copyright 2001 by Ruth Bell Graham, are used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com.

Dedicated to the memory of

William Alonzo Blue

(19232004)

who introduced me to Montreat

and

Frances Golden Blue

(19262020)

my best and favorite reader

My wife Ruth was the person to whom I would go for spiritual guidance. She was the only one in whom I completely confided. She was a great student of the Word of God. Her life was ruled by the Bible more than any individual I have ever known. When it comes to spiritual things, my wife has had the greatest influence on my ministryshe was the greatest Christian I ever knew.

Billy Graham in 2007

There will be narratives of female lives

only when women no longer live their lives

isolated in the houses and the stories of men.

Carolyn Heilbrun,

Writing a Womans Life (1988)

But thats what life offered me in the way of being a woman and I took it.

Rose Maxson, in

Fences, by August Wilson (1985)

I have taken more than ten years to complete this project. The word acknowledgment, therefore, seems too slight to describe my deep gratitude to the many generous people and institutions who supported my work. Many caring folks who asked (with increasing trepidation) about the book may have given up hope for its publication. Well, here we are. I have learned a lot about Ruth Bell Graham and her world, but I have also learned a lot about how I need to work, how to lean on colleagues and friends for help, and how writing is not a magical process (except when it is). Having finally learned the habit of being at my desk to write every day, no excuses, I may finish the next book in only five years.

I am grateful every day to Grant Wacker for getting me into this subject in the first placenot only the topic of Ruth Bell Graham but the field of US religious history. With his spouse, Katherine, Grant has created and shepherded a generation of scholars in the field. I am honored to be a part of this intellectual tribe, which has shaped my career and enriched my life.

Grants work on Billy Graham brought me into the ambit of others who have made an impact on my research. In gatherings small and large, at Wheaton College in Illinois, in Maine, Vermont, and Montreat, and in countless emails back and forth over the years, the guidance, questions, and collegiality of Edith and Edwin Blumhofer, Andrew and Ingrid Finstuen, and Larry Eskridge kept me going during various stages. Edith applied for and won the funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. that underwrote the Worlds of Billy Graham project at Wheatons Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals. This book represents only one outcome of the endowments generosity. I deeply regret that Edith died before I finished writing it. She gave me critical guidance at the beginning and all along the way. She continues to inspire me by her example of clear-eyed, creative persistence.

Other colleagues in American religion have offered indispensable help, reading drafts, suggesting fruitful research avenues, giving feedback and encouragement. Thanks to Uta Balbier, Peggy Bendroth, Kate Bowler, James Bratt, Elesha Coffman, Curtis Evans, Tommy Kidd, Jennifer Woodruff Tait, and all of the participants in the colloquia that resulted in the collection of original scholarship on Graham that Andrew Finstuen, Grant Wacker, and I coedited, Billy Graham: American Pilgrim, published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

At the beginning of my research, I received a series of Faculty Study & Research grants from Davidson College, which allowed me to hire several excellent student researchers. I am deeply grateful to Julia Capalino, Amy Colombo, Katie Kalivoda, and Laura Spencer, who helped establish the character of Ruths childhood in China, pored through piles of photocopied news clippings, examined Ruths poetry, and helped me figure out how to approach the task of telling Ruths story. At a crucial point, Davidson sponsored my participation in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversitys Faculty Success Program. My coaching cohortLara Deruisseau, Grace Kao, and Urmimala Sarkarwere godsends of support and accountability.

Over the decade of my work on this topic, opportunities to talk and teach about Ruth have shaped my approach to telling her life story. Audiences at Wheaton College filled in bare spots, expressed excitement about my attention to clergy wives, and generally welcomed a fresh look at Ruth. I am also grateful to Ronald Vinson at the Presbyterian Heritage Center in Montreat, North Carolina; Elesha Coffman and Tommy Kidd at the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion; and Martin Dotterweich and Whit and Maria Whitaker at King University, Bristol, Tennessee. At a critical moment in my writing, filmmaker Sarah Colt, director of the PBS American Experience film