It’s not every day that you’re called somebody’s favorite son, but if you’re Billy Graham, you might be accustomed to earning superlative titles. He has been voted one of the “Ten Most Admired Men in the World” in a Gallup poll a whopping 56 times, and yesterday, Governor Pat McCrory and state lawmakers added another one to his list: North Carolina’s favorite son.
Members of the General Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday to make the title official. In anticipation of the event, McCrory, had presented Graham with the proclamation during a visit to the Graham family home in western North Carolina in early March.
Graham grew up in Charlotte in the 1920’s and was ordained by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1939. His evangelical group, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, has preached to an estimated 215 million people worldwide. Graham has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Freedom Award.