CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Reverend Franklin Graham said his father Rev. Billy Graham will be buried with a Bible inside his simple plywood casket that was hand-built by convicted murderers at a Louisiana prison.
Graham tweeted a photo of the famed evangelist’s casket inside The Cove in Asheville Friday.
“Mr. Graham’s casket was made by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana in 2006,” said Mark DeMoss.
The casket for Rev. Graham is identical to the one used for his wife Ruth’s funeral. Franklin Graham first learned about the caskets during a preaching engagement in 2005, when he saw inmates building them for fellow prisoners who died.
“He asked if they could make one for his mother and father,” DeMoss said. “The caskets are made of pine, plywood, and lined with a mattress pad. A wooden cross is nailed to the top of the casket.”
Rev. Graham will lie at The Cove until Saturday morning when a motorcade will transport him to the Billy Graham Library for two days when the public will be invited to pay their respects to the world's most well-known evangelist.
Rev. Graham will be laid to rest in a private ceremony at the Billy Graham Library on March 2. His body will be laid to rest beside his late wife.