Billy Graham preaches crusade after surgeries

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Evangelist Billy Graham, a Southern Baptist from North Carolina, has recovered from two surgeries and preached four nights at a crusade in Kansas City, Mo.

The 85-year-old preacher spoke each evening at Arrowhead Stadium to an audience that totaled almost 155,000 over the four days, which concluded Oct. 10, crusade officials said.

Graham had surgeries earlier this year following two serious falls. He preached from a specially constructed pulpit where he was allowed to stand and then sit for portions of his sermon, said A. Larry Ross, the evangelist’s spokesman. Absent from the crusade was soloist George Beverly Shea, who, for the last six decades of domestic crusades, has sung before Billy Graham spoke. Shea, who suffered a mild heart attack in May, stayed home on doctor’s orders.

Graham is scheduled to hold his next crusade Nov. 18–21 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., and has announced plans for a New York area crusade at Madison Square Garden next June.