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AFP
Washington
US presidents from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump led the chorus of tributes Wednesday to the influential evangelist Billy Graham, a spiritual advisor to a dozen American leaders who has died at age 99.
"The GREAT Billy Graham is dead," Trump tweeted."There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man."
Tall and handsome, Graham, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, cut a charismatic figure as an evangelical preacher whose huge tent meetings and rallies found audiences on radio and television.
"Billy Graham was America's pastor," said former president George H. W. Bush.
"His faith in Christ and his totally honest evangelical spirit inspired people across the country and around the world. I think Billy touched the hearts of not only Christians, but people of all faiths, because he was such a good man."
"I was privileged to have him as a personal friend," Bush added."He was a mentor to several of my children, including the former president of the United States. We will miss our good friend forever."
The Southern Baptist preacher was close to the Bush family, and former president George W. Bush once said that a private meeting with Graham in 1985 helped him quit drinking.
In a tribute, the former Democratic president spoke of Graham's"enormous influence on my own spiritual life."
