One of the world’s most famous Christian evangelists, Billy Graham has died. He was 99. He died at his home in North Carolina due to natural causes.

Known as “America’s pastor,” Graham was a key figure in the revival of the U.S. evangelical Christian movement. The preacher began holding revival meetings in the 1940s and went on to become an adviser to several U.S. presidents .Graham brought evangelical Christianity into the mainstream. As  spiritual adviser to U.S. presidents, he had great access to the White House.

Born Nov. 7, 1918, in Charlotte, North Carolina, he was the eldest of four children in a strict Presbyterian family. Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950, running it for 50 years before retiring and handing it over to his son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, in November 2000.Graham began preaching overseas in 1954 when he visited Great Britain. There, rallies attendance stood at more than two million people. He held hundreds of rallies around the world.

Billy Graham had been admitted severally in recent years to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for a pulmonary condition. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1989. He also suffered from prostrate cancer and fluid on the brain. In 2004, he fell and fractured his left hip and afterwards used a walker to move about.