Maury Scobee- Becoming Billy Graham's Personal Aide

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. From Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to It's Time to Man Up, the Devil's Worst Nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Today, I would like to welcome back to the show, Morrie Scobee, for part two of his amazing story and his journey of 40 plus years as personal aid and personal assistant to the Reverend Billy Graham. Well, I want to welcome back our listeners. We're talking to Morrie Scobee, who, if you heard the first program, the first show, and just some of Morrie's background, some of his story. I mean, just a fascinating story, all the way from Grandpa and the Battle Bulls to working and moving heavy equipment, headed to Hollywood to pursue, hopefully, a career in the movie industry, to going to school, going to college with Franklin Graham and the divine appointment of meeting Franklin Graham and that divine appointment. Hey, Morrie, let's pick up there for our listeners.

So, you have that divine appointment with Franklin. And so, what happened from there? So, you guys meet, you make a connection, and then kind of what happened? Well, that was the end of the school year. And so, he told me, I'm going home for the summer, and I'll be back this fall. And I said, well, I'll be easy to find because I'm working full-time at the Holiday Inn, just south of Lauterno College campus. So, just come out there.

I always work the 3 to 11 shift, Monday through Friday. So, the summer came and gone, and then here I was working that fall, but I never saw Franklin. And so, I thought, well, as it turned out, something must have changed, and maybe he's coming back and maybe he's not. So, that whole semester, he never showed up. And then, early in January of 1967, then, I was working at the Holiday Inn. And in the door, he walked, and I said, hey, Franklin, I wasn't sure if you were coming back. And it turned out that he had an opportunity. Two ladies who operated, and I think one of them is still alive, and she's still there with a little ministry to a hospital in Jordan.

And nurses and one thing and another. And so, it turned out that they needed a vehicle, and so the Graham organization bought the vehicle, and Franklin drove it to them, and that was going across Europe to get to Jordan. And it was a nice car. I think it was a car from England. It was a big, rugged, four-wheel drive.

I can't think what it was called. And it was one of the most sought-after vehicles in all of Europe. And here are these two college kids driving it across Europe.

And, you know, one might think that it'd be easy to kill off two college kids to get to steal that number one most sought-out vehicle in the world. But, of course, these two happened to be ordained of the Lord to make this trip, and so certainly the guardian angels were protecting them, so they made the trip safely and delivered the vehicle. So then, right after Franklin came back to college, then we struck up a friendship, and it was just quiet and private, and I was ever so careful not to ask him too many questions, and I just really let him let his hair down and just be Franklin. Those were the days of smoking and drinking, but I knew that he trusted me right away and knew that he could do what he was doing and not have to worry about me ever saying anything about it, which I did not. Then later, the Lord really got a hold of him, and he threw away all of that and followed God into the ministry that he's in now, which is just amazing what all of he does nationally and internationally. Yeah, and I understand you mentioned something on the last show about him being a bit bashful and, of course, the son of, in a sense, a celebrity evangelist or somebody becoming known around the world, and I really can relate with that, Maury, in the sense of my wrestling background and the celebrity status that some have labeled me with as a world champion wrestler. And then for my own children, I've got four girls, and they've had to deal with that. They've had to live with being the daughters or the children of a celebrity, and so I can certainly understand, I'm guessing, the pressure that Franklin was under back in those younger days and those college days. And then, of course, what all college kids are exposed to. Coming up, you grew up in a Christian home, he grew up in a Christian home, and all of a sudden you've got freedom and liberty, and kids are doing things on campus that maybe for the first time you're seeing and experiencing. So I totally understand that path, but yet where it's led him. We'll talk a little bit more about that as well, but let's pick up on, so you have this college career, you get to know Franklin on a personal level, but yet you had mentioned on the last show about your desire to perhaps make it in the movie industry.

So give us just a quick snapshot of what that looked like. Did you go west? Did you go out to California?

What did you do? Well, in the meantime, as far as wanting to do that, again, I met Reverend and Mrs. Graham, and so Ms. Graham had been with her grandkids in Wisconsin and climbed a tree, and the tree broke and she fell quite a number of feet. She was unconscious for six weeks, I think, and that all made the news, and I'd been calling the office to check on her and give my love and prayers, and so, and then as a result of that, I think that's where I suppose I've never really verbalized it, but from their standpoint, they must have realized that Ms. Graham and I had developed a nice friendship, and they really needed me to come and help them, so that I'd be really just serving both Reverend and Mrs. Graham, but on the other hand, whenever he left for town, I was right there looking out for.

I never ever lived with him. I always had my own apartment, but really from the get-go, they gave me a two-way radio that would go about a 20-mile radius, so I could be running errands and she could pick up the two-way and just say, Maury, can you hear me? And then I would answer and then do whatever they happen to need, so, and then of course, in the package, they would have never known how much I love children, and so when all 19 grandkids came along, then I individually took care of all 19 of them, and I think the most I ever had in a nine-passenger station wagon was I think 11, 12, or maybe it was 13, all crammed in there, no seat belts, nobody was worried about seat belts in those days, but so it was just a very special relationship that took pressures off of them. When the adults all wanted to be together, then I could take all the kids and go bowling or go to a movie or go to Arby's or McDonald's or whatever, so it was just a very, very, very special calling, and I'm so thankful that the Lord brought it all about. Well, let's connect some dots here, so just back up just for a moment, so you end up, just for our listeners, for Point of Clarity, and I'm not even sure, what would your official title have been, Maury, just personal assistant? I don't think, yeah, I suppose. Did you have a title? I didn't really have a title, and in a way I was kind of glad, because then I could get into a lot of mischief without feeling like I was overstepping my bounds, but so I was just an assistant to Reverend and Mrs. Graham.

Okay, so just to fill in the gap just slightly there, so you have this vision, this dream of getting involved in the movie industry, and it doesn't sound like you ended up, it sounds like the Lord took you on a different path, and so that never materialized, right? Nikita Kolov here. If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem Motor Cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, be sure to check them out today at wsmc1.com, because you are number one.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Leaving Texas instead of going west to Hollywood, I traveled east to go to work for the Grahams. I literally went 100% in the opposite direction, but in my heart I knew that this was what I was supposed to do, and of course never dreamed that it would stretch. And this was my 43rd year with the Graham organization, so I'm still with the organization. 43 years, and wow, that's amazing. Grasp hold of that for the listener, 43 years with the Billy Graham organization.

It really isn't for me to say that, even. Yeah, yeah, well, and so, okay, now this is cool. So you got this vision, or at least maybe kind of a dream to go out to Hollywood, but the Lord says, ah, many are the plans in a man's heart, but I'm going to direct your steps. And so because of that divine appointment with Franklin Graham, you build a friendship, you just let him, he lets his hair down, he knows he can just be real, and with Maury, you build this great friendship, and that friendship leads you not west to Hollywood, but leads you east to the Billy Graham organization, and you become just, really just as you said, a personal aide, a personal assistant to Reverend Billy Graham, and Miss Ruth Graham, right? It was very, very special. And then I've got a fantastic relationship to this day with all 19 grandkids. I feel bad I don't see them as often now that both the grandparents are dead and the families don't get to Western North Carolina like they used to when their grandparents were alive. So I feel bad that I've missed seeing so many of the grandkids and the children and their wives and husbands. Well, and I'm certain they understand, but at the same time, I mean, right, everyone's just kind of living such busy lives, right? But let's go back to you head east, and you become, you know, let's just say, you know, the personal assistant, I mean, you're kind of taking care of the needs of the family, taking the grandkids all over the place to give adults some alone time, some adult time together.

Right. But you traveled, right? So when Reverend Graham would, were you always back with Miss Ruth or were you on the road?

Yeah, for, for the most part, but then of course, um, his crusades originally would be 10 days that would start on one, one Wednesday and go all the way until the next Sunday. And so it got where she wanted to come at least the last weekend of every one of those crusade major maximum cities. And so she and I then would fly that last weekend and be there for the last service.

Okay. So you'd escort her to the, to the, to the service and, and, and whatever city from Seattle to Miami, to New York, to Kansas city, wherever Mr. Graham was that I was flying in with her company, her and be there for the last two, three, four days. And I, I know, uh, w w which is, is amazing. Now you ended up, I know even, even recently, right. Taking a trip, uh, to China is as recent as, uh, last year. That was with their grandson will, will Graham got invited to, uh, have three different meetings in three different cities in China that was back in the fall of 2019.

So it's just been a few months ago. And, uh, I had gone with them to China back in the eighties and never really dreamed I'd ever get to go back to China, but he asked me to come over and be a part of that trip. And so part of it was going back and bumping into one or two or three, I tried to track down to see a couple of people that I'd seen back 40 years ago, you know, or whatever number of years ago when we were at the first time. So that was real special to be able to make a second trip to China.

What, what, what would be a John that first trip, you know, you're escorting the grams, you're there, you're assisting in whatever their needs are. Any, any particular story that kind of jumps out any, any particular memory that jumps out at you from, from that particular trip? Well, uh, those were a few different, uh, locations in, um, in China, but while we were there in 88, um, it was a major crusade. And then the next year, Ms. Graham decided to take all five kids and their husbands and wives and go back in 1989. But it turned out two of the daughters-in-law got pregnant. They could not go.

And so, and then the husbands realized they could not take off. And so it ended up being this Graham with their three daughters and me. And that was a very special trip, but of course, how do we know that all of that protesting would take place at Tiananmen square and how everything was just get locked down?

And, uh, we actually, Ms. Graham wondered if they were trying to part of their endeavor might've been to look for a different type of government, you know, for the people she didn't really know, but so she wanted us to walk with them to encourage them. And, uh, we had scores of photographers from around the world. You could tell they were different ethnic groups from Spanish to Anglo to Chinese, Japanese, whatever. And they all took our pictures because here we were, we were the only, the three daughters and me. So we were the only whites walking with that group of several hundred thousand. And we always stayed sort of to one edge so that we wouldn't get so masked up with the crowd that we would get have gotten lost. We could have stepped out and be been on a curb of a street and worked our way back to our hotel. So it was all in a straight line. So, uh, we had already walked it on a day or two before.

So we knew about what was our length and width of the trip that we could walk to be part of that. So they would, they were really, who knows, maybe protesting freedom. Who knows?

I don't know. I haven't read in recent years as people, historians look back what they really call that. It might've been too long ago for you to remember 1989.

Well, no, I remember, I guess the vivid memory for me is that the one soul, single man standing in front of the tank. That's right, of course. That makes international news. Oh wow. What a great event for you. Yeah. It was great experience there with my, my family, my youngest daughter, Colby.

And of course, uh, part of my bucket list was climbed the great wall of China and, and so I was able to check, check that off. And, uh, you know, but for, for the listeners who maybe don't know, um, Mrs. Graham was her parents, her dad was a doctor, right? And they were missionaries.

He was pioneer. They went, she was born in 1920, but I think they went out about 1910 before Ms. Graham was even born. And, uh, back then, a lot of the denominations work together to sort of not saturate certain parts of every country.

They sort of shared it with Presbyterians and Baptists and whatnot. So from the compound where Ms. Graham's father went to serve, uh, that's where she was born. So three of the four children were born in China. And then the fourth one that came home on furlough one year.

And then the fourth child, the youngest son was a son and he was born in the United States, but then he would have gone back to China when they went back because he would have gone back as a little child. Wow. That's, that's amazing that you mentioned something we could do a whole show on what you just said that that was back in the day when denominations were working together.

We, we, we can do a whole show on that boy. But, uh, I don't know too many other stories about other denominations, but I do know that, uh, they sort of, I don't know how the heads of the organizations got together to sort of not crowd up certain parts of the world. And, um, so it's, it's kinda interesting just to look at that one aspect.

Yeah, it really is. Well, so some amazing memories, uh, in, in traveling to China, is there, is there another country that, that perhaps you escorted the Grahams and, or were, were a part of, of that trip or the part, a part of that crusade, something that jumps out that really, really is a fond memory of you, of yours? Well, we had three huge, uh, Congresses in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 83, Amsterdam, 86 and Amsterdam, 2000. And so, uh, I was there with the Grahams in 86 and 89, and then we were planning to go back in 2000, but then Mr. Graham had brain surgery.

He had to have some surgery at the Mayo clinic. And so we were unable to go, but they rigged up satellite for us in Minnesota at the Mayo clinic. And we watched the live every day, um, all the meetings over there, and then they had a cameraman there with us so that Mr. Ms. Graham ever wanted to, um, make your comment on a certain preacher or a lot of times they did interviews back and forth different evangelists who were speaking from certain parts of the world.

Wanted to, during their time of speaking, wanted to ask Mr. Ms. Graham questions. So all that was capable with this modern technology. Yeah. Right.

I know it's, it's, it's pretty amazing what, uh, what we can do, especially in today's day and time. And, and, uh, well, and, and we're talking with Morris Scobee who was, uh, 43 years now, uh, with, uh, Billy Graham evangelistic association. If you want to say personal assistant, personal aid, uh, to, to the Grahams and, and you are with them right more, I mean, right up to, to the passing of, of Mrs. Graham as well as.

Oh yeah. I was, um, up at the house with Mr. Graham when. Ruth was ticking down and, um, you know, her nurses were coming and tell him, Mr. Graham, and so at an appropriate time, probably a couple hours or maybe, maybe a little more than two hours before she died. They thought that'd be a marvelous time. And he went in there and sat by her bedside and held her hand and they had their last visit as it were. And that was kind of sad. And then he, um, didn't really say, but I think that he realized that he kind of wanted to not be in the same room when she took her last breath.

So I think that that'd be hard for any, uh, married couple, especially all the longevity of the years that they had been married. So at some point, um, he walked back to his office and, uh, we sat there and visited and prayed. And, um, you know, he knew that at any minute they'd come in and say that she had gone to heaven and that's what happened. I think what fascinates me is, you know, I've been out to the Billy Graham library. We'll talk about that in, in, in just a moment, uh, in a few minutes here as well, or we'll, we'll, we'll circle back around to that. Um, and, uh, what they always fascinated me was what's on the gravestone, uh, end of construction.

Thank you for your patience. So there's this, see, uh, ms. Graham had such marvelous wisdom about thing and about things, but then she also had a comical side to her. And I remember that there was a lot of interest in the fact that she came up with that little saying, and, uh, that's what's on the grave. That's that's, that's pretty amazing. And, and, uh, so she, she would pass and you continued on with, with, uh, with Billy Graham and, and just assist him and his needs then.

Right. So I was up there the day he passed and he, you know, was getting more and more quiet, but, um, we had plenty of around the clock nurses, 24 seven, and then I filled in. I usually work the evening shifts so that, uh, I could be, they, they wanted to have a couple of men that worked in the daytime with the nurses. And then I worked in the evening with the nurses and then, but it made it special for Mr. Graham to have me for the second half of the day.

Well, that's a huge blessing. We're talking with Morris Scobie, uh, personal assistant aide to Reverend Billy Graham, 43 years with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. We're going to talk some more. When we come back, we're going to talk about the Billy Graham Library. We're going to talk about the Cove, talk about Montreat, Franklin Graham Samaritan's Purse.

Um, we'll be back in, in just a moment. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions.

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