Billy and Ruth Graham were married for more than six decades. Five children and 19 grandchildren later, the couple built a life dedicated to serving the Lord, with the utmost devotion to one another.

Like most, their marriage story began with a question and a ring. This very engagement ring can be seen when you take The Journey of Faith tour at the Billy Graham Library, where a special gallery is dedicated to the love story of Billy and Ruth Graham.

A Ring for a Lifetime

Billy and Ruth met in the early 1940s as students at Wheaton College. Billy recalls the moment he met Ruth for the first time in his autobiography, Just As I Am. He remembers being so impressed and awestruck by Ruth that it took him over a month to ask her out on a date.

Months of courtship went by, and Billy stayed steadfast in his pursuit of Ruth. “Two things I felt sure of: first, that Ruth was bound to get married someday; and second, that I was the man she would marry,” Billy wrote. “… I let God do my courting for me.”

Billy explained that the engagement was not smooth sailing. He had asked her to marry him, but she was struggling with the decision. “She did not say yes to my proposal right then and there, but I knew she was thinking it over,” Billy wrote.

While preaching in Florida in the summer of 1941, Billy received a letter from Ruth dated July 6, 1941. The paper held the words Billy had been waiting for. “I’ll marry you,” Ruth wrote.

“At the close of a preaching series at Sharon Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, those dear people gave me, as I recall, an offering of $165,” Billy Graham wrote. “I raced right out and spent almost all of it on an engagement ring with a diamond so big you could almost see it with a magnifying glass.”

Billy then gave the diamond engagement ring to Ruth on a drive on the iconic Blue Ridge Parkway—that was also the day they shared their first kiss.

“I can’t wear the ring until I get permission from my parents,” Ruth apologetically told Billy.

So Ruth sent them a telegram: “Guess what? A ring: Perfectly thrilled. May I wear it?”

Her parents wired back: “Yes. If it fits.”

The couple shared a two-year engagement. During that time, Ruth gave her fiancé a copy of Sermon Illustrations by 19th-century evangelist Charles Spurgeon. Inside the book is a reflection on love that reads:

“God is in love with you. I think Aristotle said that it was impossible for one to be assured of another’s love without feeling some love in return. I am not sure about that; but I think it’s quite impossible to enjoy a sense of God’s love without returning it in measure.”

Billy and Ruth were married on Aug. 13, 1943. Their marriage spanned 63 fruitful years until Ruth’s passing in June 2007—leaving behind a love story penned by God and anchored in Christ.

See the engagement ring in person when you take The Journey of Faith tour at the Billy Graham Library. Plan your next visit or see upcoming events.