■ ■ ■All this listening and learning on Billy’s part, which continued
throughout his lifetime of ministry, started very early. We talked
about that with Billy’s younger brother, Melvin Graham, shortly
before he passed away.
When Billy had left the farm, Melvin had stayed on—back
when plowing was done with mules, their first tractor not pur-
chased until 1939 when Billy was twenty. Now, nearly eighty,
Melvin was still active in land development.
“Billy comes to Charlotte just to get away,” he told us. “Last
month he called from the Park Hotel and asked me to come up
and talk to him.” He described driving Billy around Charlotte and
answering his questions. “Why didn’t you go to college?” Billy
asked.
“Well,” Melvin responded with a smile, “I was milking cows,
Billy Frank.”
We asked, “Where do you think Billy’s growth came from?”
“Billy Frank would interact with just about anybody,” he said.
“It didn’t matter who they were, kings or paupers. He studied a
lot. He prayed a lot. He’d get on his knees and flatten out on the
ground and call on the Lord. I’ve seen him.”
Melvin had mentioned Christian leaders who had influenced
Billy, and we asked about that. He suddenly pulled up his chin
and said, “Tell you what—it just now came to my mind! There
was a fella named Bill Henderson, had a little grocery store in the
black section of Charlotte—just a run-down little dump of a place.
He was a tiny fella. He had long sleeves that came way down, and
he wore a tie that would hang down below his waist. But I tell
you, that little old man, he knew the Bible!
“This was probably the late forties,” Melvin explained, “and
Billy had been around a lot of places.”
We nodded, remembering this was when Billy was United Air-
lines’ top traveler and had preached in many European cities.
Melvin wagged his head in wonder. “Henderson barely made
a living. It was a place the black people would come to get chewing
Learning — and Leveraging Weaknesses