EON

Washington  – Ruth Graham, wife of one of the world’s best- known spiritual leaders, Billy Graham, died Thursday evening at her home in North Carolina, his ministry, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said.

She had been in ailing health and slipped into a coma Wednesday morning. A dispute over her burial place had brought the family recent media attention, but Billy Graham said both he and his wife will be buried at the family’s newly opened library.

“Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team,” he in an obituary on the association’s website. “No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.”

When the 27-million-dollar Billy Graham Library was opened earlier this month in Charlotte, North Carolina, former presidents Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and Jimmy Carter attended. The affair underlined the worldwide fame of Graham’s ministry.

The library was not Ruth Graham’s first choice for a burial site, and she had earlier signed a notarized statement at the prompting of one son, Ned, insisting she be buried elsewhere, on the grounds of an out-of-the-way retreat called the Cove, also in North Carolina, the Washington Post reported in December.

But son Franklin Graham, who has taken over leadership of his father’s ministry, pushed for the library location, which uses a Walt-Disney-like approach to draw in visitors and contributions.

The library, which was Franklin’s brain child, is built in the shape of a barn and silo, representing Graham’s rural origins. A motorized talking cow greets visitors, who are then directed along a straw-strewn path to visit museum exhibits about Graham’s life, according to reports.

The path ends at the garden where Ruth, and later Billy, will be buried.

In a statement Wednesday, Graham said he and Ruth had made a decision to be buried at the library “privately but only decided to announce it now that she is close to going home to heaven.”

“Earlier this spring, after much prayer and discussion, Ruth and I made the decision to be buried beside each other at the Billy Graham Library in my hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina,” he said in a statement on his website.

He noted that they had met more than 65 years ago as college students and he was “more in love with her today than when we first met.”

Ruth Graham, who was born in China to missionary parents in 1920, has been bedfast for some time. In December, she was suffering from degeneration from the spine, the Post reported. Two weeks ago, she was treated for pneumonia, according to a spokesperson Larry Ross quoted by WCNC television.

Her husband, 88, suffers from Parkinsons disease and has lost most of his vision.

They were married for 63 years and have five children.

In addition to supporting her husband’s ministry, Ruth Graham also wrote, or co-wrote 14 books.