The spiritual aside, it is hard for me to think of Billy Graham and not think of butter.

        In October 1977, the last time the world-famous evangelist held a crusade in Cincinnati, I was a 24-year-old cub reporter for the Troy (Ohio) Daily News, a small-town daily newspaper about 75 miles north of Cincinnati.

        That year, the Rev. Mr. Graham was 58 years old, in robust health, and seemingly always available for media interviews.

        Even a reporter for a tiny 13,000-circulation newspaper in western Ohio could get one if he asked, which I did.

        It took place early in the morning of Oct. 20 in a suite in the Westin Hotel downtown.

        The Rev. Mr. Graham sat in a comfortable arm chair; I sat across from him. A hotel busboy wheeled in a tea cart loaded with breakfast rolls, butter pats and coffee.

        We had a wide-ranging and pleasant talk for about 45 minutes on matters of theology and politics. I remember him speaking approvingly of the fact that the nation had a president in Jimmy Carter who openly and often acknowledged that he was a “born again” Christian.

        As the interview came to a close, the Rev. Mr. Graham leaned forward and asked if I would mind if “we close our meeting in prayer.”

        I agreed, and he clasped his hands over mine on the tea cart.

        What he did not know was that he had planted my right hand squarely on a quickly melting slab of butter the size of a credit card.

        When he came to his “Amen,” I quickly looked around for a linen napkin so I wouldn't grease his wrist up to the elbow when we shook hands.

        “I've enjoyed our talk,” he said as I made my way to the door.

        “Me too, reverend.”

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