An Odd Cross to Bear

by: Anne Blue Wills The fascinating life story, told critically but sympathetically, of a paragon of twentieth-century white Christian womanhood--and the wife of evangelist Billy Graham.   Ruth Bell Graham's legacy is closely associated with that of her husband, whose career placed her in the public eye throughout her life. But, while it's true that her identity was significantly shaped by her role in supporting Billy Graham's ministry, Ruth carried a strong sense of her own agency and was widely influential in her own right, especially in the image she projected of conservative evangelical womanhood--defined by a faith that was deep, private, and nonpolitical.   Beginning prior to Ruth and Billy's meeting at Wheaton College, Anne Blue Wills chronicles the many formative experiences of Ruth's life--especially the first decade of her childhood living in a community of American medical missionaries in China. Throughout the biography, Wills focuses not on Ruth's role in Billy's life, but