William (Billy) Franklin Graham, born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on November 17, 1918, was saved at age 16 in a Mordecal Ham crusade and preached his first sermon on Easter Sunday night, March 28, 1947, at Bostwick Baptist Church near Palatka, Florida, while a student at Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace. He was baptized in Silver Lake in 1938 and ordained as a Southern Baptist preacher at nearby Peniel Church in 1939. After graduating from Wheaton College in 1943, he served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Western Springs, Illinois, from 1943 to 1946. He married Ruth Bell Graham in 1943, and they had five children: Virginia, Anne, Ruth, Franklin, and Nelson. He became widely known as an evangelist after the Los Angeles evangelistic campaign in 1949 and formed the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950. He led evangelistic crusades in cities around the world and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people around the world than any other preacher who has ever lived, with a lifetime audience, including radio and television, exceeding two billion people.