DESIGNATED NOTE: In the mid-1980s, Stan Tiner was our boss when he was editor of the  “Shreveport Journal” and we were young sportswriters. On the rare occasion when we would cobble something together that wasn’t too bad, he’d come back to us, smile to the point of laughter and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Music!

As former executive editor of “The Sun Herald” in Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss., he led the way to the paper’s 2006 Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, then dedicated the gold medal to the people of South Mississippi for their courage in the wake of the disaster. He’s retired now in Gulfport, gardening and reading and writing and still serving.

But before he did all that, he was a little boy in Blanchard when a young Carolina evangelist named Billy Graham came to town — and stayed for three weeks. Here is what he remembers…

By STAN TINER, Designated Contributor

At 33, Billy Graham, the Southern Baptist evangelist from North Carolina, had already become a sensation—his revival meetings that he called “crusades” had drawn national media attention and massive crowds.

The Rev. Monroe E. Dodd, Sr., longtime pastor of the First Baptist Church in Shreveport (1912-1950), and a two-term President of the Southern Baptist Convention, had convinced Dr. Graham to bring his crusade to Shreveport. He arrived in April of 1951 for three weeks of services to be held at the Municipal Auditorium.

Dr. Graham arrived to much fanfare in the local media, and from the pulpits of churches across North Louisiana and East Texas.

It was quickly obvious the Municipal Auditorium could not contain the throngs. Thousands were turned away nightly, and it was quickly decided to move the crusade to State Fair Stadium (now Independence Stadium).

As a boy of eight, I (with my family) was among dozens from our church, Blanchard Baptist, and the 25,000 who attended this first stadium crusade service.

I had seen many evangelists at our local church, but nothing like that night.

George Beverly Shea sang the magestic hymns well-known to Baptists, Dr. Graham mesmerized the vast crowd with his gospel of love and hope, and when the mass choir sang endless verses of “Just As I Am” as a hymn of invitation, hundreds streamed down the aisles to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Over the three weeks of his Shreveport crusade more than 200,000 attended the services and 4,300 professed their faith in Christ.

The boy from Blanchard would never forget that night, and over the decades Billy Graham came to be regarded as one of the most influential preachers and religious leaders of the Twentieth Century.

His final public sermon was delivered in New Orleans in 2006 for survivors of Katrina, and his death Wednesday Feb. 21, at 99 is mourned by millions across the world.