The Reverend Billy Graham will be laid to rest today in North Carolina. There is a Louisiana connection. The 99-year-old evangelist will be buried in a coffin made by prisoners at Angola. Former inmate David Bacon says Graham was so impressed with the caskets they made for those who died while in prison, he ordered one on the spot.
Bacon recalls the time when there wasn’t much use for religion at Angola, but former warden Burl Cain opened the door for churches to come in and Graham helped to satisfy the prisoner’s spiritual needs.
Bacon says his life wouldn’t be what it is today, had it not been for him to meet Graham while he was at Angola.
Graham’s wife Ruth, who died in 2007, is also buried in one of the Angola caskets.