Franklin Graham: 'Preacher' Will Be on My Father's Tombstone

Franklin Graham on Thursday said his late father Rev. Billy Graham will be memorialized in exactly the simple way he wanted — "Preacher."

"That's what's going to be on his tombstone: Preacher," Franklin Graham told NBC's "Today" show.

"I asked my father — so there wouldn't be any argument among us children — I asked him, 'Daddy, what do you want to be on your tombstone?' And he thought about that and he said, 'Preacher,'" Graham told NBC.

Billy Graham died Wednesday at the age of 99.

Franklin Graham said he didn't believe it at first.

"I kinda chuckled because my father said years ago, 'When you hear that Billy Graham is dead, don't you believe it for a second,'" Franklin Graham told NBC. "He said: 'I'll be more alive than ever before.'

"We rejoice because his suffering is over and he is in God's presence."

Franklin Graham will be one of many to speak at his father's private funeral, which will be held March 2 at his library in Charlotte. It's an invitation-only event.

However, Graham's body will lay in repose at the Graham Family Homeplace Monday and Tuesday.

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