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Quotes: 'People got to see him and hear him and know him because New York was the place where that could happen.' - Art Bailey, Greater New York Crusade coordinator
The Rev. Billy Graham will preach his final New York-area crusade, and what could be his last one ever, in Flushing Meadows- Corona Park next month, bringing his big-tent evangelism back to the city that cemented his reputation as a national religious leader almost 50 years ago.
The 86-year-old preacher, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and who now gets around with a walker, described recently how coming back to New York "will be like going home again."
This will be Graham's eighth crusade in the New York area - his first in 1957 drew 2 million people and turned his career into a juggernaut after several of the events were nationally televised.