A Time for Remembering

Patricia Cornwell's biography follows Ruth Bell Graham, wife of the evangelist Billy Graham, from her childhood as a missionary's daughter in China and Korea, where war and unrest shaped her early years, to a quiet life in Wheaton, Illinois. The narrative then tracks her marriage to one of the best-known preachers of the age, carrying readers through the Deep South, postwar Europe, and the American upheavals of the 1950s and after.

Rather than presenting her only as a famous minister's spouse, the book shows a woman of considerable determination, resolve, and faith whose convictions helped shape modern Christianity. Her husband's beliefs, upbringing, private life, and steady rise to international prominence are all part of the story, as are her sacrifices and her steady support for her family and for him.