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Quotable moment: Billy Graham played a round with JFK in Palm Beach
The Rev. Billy Graham was presented an honorary doctorate degree by Palm Beach Atlantic in 1997. (Scott Wiseman/The Palm Beach Post)
Did you think we were going to let the late Billy Graham go to his heavenly reward without a Palm Beach anecdote?
We’re not.
And, of course, it’s a golf story, related by a Graham biographer.
After John F. Kennedy defeated Graham’s pal Richard Nixon in the 1960 election, he invited the preacher-to-presidents down to Palm Beach for a round or two.
Round meaning golf, not alcohol.
During the game at the Palm Beach Country Club, Graham missed a putt.
“Kennedy said, jokingly, ‘Well, I thought you were a good golfer,’” wrote biographer Professor Grant Wacker of Duke Divinity School. “Graham rolled with it, replying, ‘I am when I’m not playing with the president of the United States.’”
