CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Well-wishers lined freeway overpasses and small-town streets to honor the late Rev. Billy Graham as his motorcade crossed his beloved home state of North Carolina for four hours on Saturday from his mountain chapel to namesake library in the state’s largest city.
Adults and children stood behind wooden barricades and yellow tape, police officers saluted, and admirers captured the moment on cellphones along the route. Fire trucks parked on overpasses along Interstate 40.
Pallbearers, followed by family members, carried the coffin into the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, which will serve as a backdrop for the evangelist’s funeral.
People line the street as the hearse carrying the body of Rev. Billy Graham leaves the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)
Franklin Graham said he was fulfilling a promise to take his father’s body to Charlotte. He said was overwhelmed by the “outpouring of love we are seeing as we travel.”
The motorcade for “America’s Pastor,” which began at the training center operated by Graham’s evangelistic association in Asheville, was a chance for residents in some of the evangelist’s favorite places to pay tribute. Graham often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. He made his home in the nearby community of Montreat.
“He has never really reveled in all of the celebrity. It’s come with the territory,” said Joe Tyson, a family friend who runs a furniture store in Black Mountain, where he watched the procession. “But they’ve managed to live a very normal life for such famous people. And I think he’d be very proud that his neighbors turned out and quietly celebrated his reward and his passage into heaven.”
Graham, who died Wednesday at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television.
A viewing will be held at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday. Graham will also lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Thursday, the first time a private citizen has been accorded such recognition since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.
The procession was part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial Friday.
A man played bagpipes at a highway rest area near Marion, where an overpass was draped with flags from about 15 nations. In Black Mountain, a group sang “Amazing Grace.”
Motorists lined sidewalks and medians as the motorcade rolled through Charlotte and neared the Graham library, which was closed as mourners laid flowers and awaited arrival of the evangelist’s casket.
“He was so bold, he so boldly confessed the word of God,” said Madeline Reid. “And I believe because of his service to humanity, that he’s truly gonna be great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Ruby Sparks, 85, attended a Graham youth ministry meeting in 1951, when she was a college student in Greensboro, North Carolina, and met him in 1970.
“He was such a wonderful man of God, and a messenger of God,” she said.
Asked if there would ever be another force like his, she replied: “I doubt it. Perhaps, in my next, in another lifetime. Not in my lifetime.”
Leighton Ford, the evangelist’s brother-in-law, said he was thankful for the show of support and also a little sad.
“I think he’d say, ‘It’s not about me. It’s about the Lord,'” Ford said. “I remember at his last stadium meeting here in Charlotte, the mayor of Charlotte told us he was writing out the platform of Billy, and everybody was cheering, and Billy said, ‘Wait a minute. It’s not about us. It’s about Him.'”
Graham will be laid to rest at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the library in Charlotte, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007. His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one.
The funeral will be held in a tent in the main parking lot of Graham’s library in tribute to the 1949 Los Angeles tent revivals that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark DeMoss said. About 2,000 people are expected at the private, invitation-only funeral.
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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte contributed to this report.
The hearse carrying the body of Billy Graham arrives at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham’s body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Family members, including Franklin Graham, right, walk to vehicles before the body of Rev. Billy Graham leaves the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)
Mourners view the motorcade carrying Rev. Billy Graham through a window to in Black Mountain, N.C., on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Lyons traveled from Muldoon, Texas. It was a chance for residents in some of Graham’s favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
Pallbearers carry the body of Rev. Billy Graham into a hearse before leaving the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)
People line the street to pay respects as the hearse carrying the body of Rev. Billy Graham travels through Black Mountain, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)
Family members look on as the body of Rev. Billy Graham is carried to the hearse to leave the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)
Rose Salazar of Cornelius, N.C. waits for the motorcade carrying the body of the late Rev. Billy Graham to proceed through uptown Charlotte, N.C. on the way to the Billy Graham Library on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
FILE – In this Dec. 20, 2010 file photo, evangelist Billy Graham, 92, speaks during an interview at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)
Visitors leave the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
FILE – In this May 9, 2003 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham quiets the crowd during the second day of his Mission San Diego revival at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)
Pall bearers carry the casket containing the body of Billy Graham toward his birthplace home at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham’s body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
The Billy Graham procession drives south on U.S. 321 near Dallas. N.C. as it passes through Gaston County on it’s way to Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Saturday Feb. 24, 2018. (John Clark/The Gaston Gazette via AP)
The Billy Graham procession drives south on U.S. 321 near Dallas. N.C. as it passes through Gaston County on it’s way to Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Saturday Feb. 24, 2018. (John Clark/The Gaston Gazette via AP)
Pall bearers carry the casket with the body of Billy Graham past family members to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham’s body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Mourners line Hwy 70 through Black Mountain, N.C. as the motorcade carrying Rev. Billy Graham passes by, on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. It was a chance for residents in some of Graham’s favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
Observers watch from Morehead Street as the motorcade carrying the body of the late Rev. Billy Graham passes beneath them through uptown Charlotte, N.C. on the way to the Billy Graham Library on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
Pall bearers carry the casket carrying the body of Billy Graham past family member to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham’s body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Ann Lyons waits for the motorcade carrying Rev. Billy Graham to pass by in Black Mountain, N.C., on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Lyons traveled from Muldoon, Texas. It was a chance for residents in some of Graham’s favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP)
FILE – In this June 25, 2005 file photo, former President Bill Clinton, left, speaks alongside the Rev. Billy Graham on the second night of the Greater New York Billy Graham Crusade at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
FILE – In this Oct. 24, 1976 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham, 57, of Montreat, N.C., holds his bible while gesturing during the final service of the 10-day Southeastern Michigan Crusade at Pontiac Stadium, in Pontiac, Mich. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Richard Scheinwald, File)
FILE – In this May 20, 1985 file photo, Rev. Billy Graham sings a hymn as he stands on the stage at the Hartford Civic Center in Conn. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Bob Child, File)
FILE – In this March 12, 1955 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham stands with his wife Ruth Graham as he waves from the liner Liberte in New York, before departing on a European preaching tour. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo, File)
FILE – In this April 10, 2006 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham, foreground left, is applauded by former first lady Barbara Bush and former President George Bush after receiving the 2006 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (Butch Ireland/College Station Eagle via AP, File)
FILE – In this June 27, 1954 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 Berliners at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Werner Kreusch, File)
FILE – In this June 12, 2003 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham preaches in Oklahoma City, Okla. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
FILE – In this May 20, 1985 file photo, Rev. Billy Graham sings a hymn as he stands on the stage at the Hartford Civic Center in Conn. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Bob Child, File)
FILE – In this Oct. 24, 1976 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham, 57, of Montreat, N.C., holds his bible while gesturing during the final service of the 10-day Southeastern Michigan Crusade at Pontiac Stadium, in Pontiac, Mich. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina’s mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham’s body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Richard Scheinwald, File)
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