Graham Family’s First Preacher

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 15, 2009

The Graham family spent the Christmas of 1936 at a relative’s boarding house in Orlando. Billy’s father encouraged four-year-old Jean Graham to get up on the table and “preach” to the gathered guests.

“She was so cute, with her beautiful blond hair, that they stopped to pay attention,” Graham wrote in his autobiography. “I don’t know why Daddy put her up to it, but Jean was serious about her message and told the guests that they needed to come to Jesus. I guess you could say she was the first preacher in our family.”