An Oral History with Cliff Barrows (1923

Cliff Barrows passed away on Tuesday, November 15, 2016, at the age of 93.

Born in Ceres, California, Barrows attended Bob Jones University, graduating in 1944 with an AB in sacred music and Shakespearean drama.

Later that year he was ordained as a Baptist minister in California and became assistant pastor of Temple Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In 1945, Cliff and his wife, Billie (newly married), attended a Youth for Christ rally in Asheville, North Carolina, where a 26-year-old named Billy Graham was speaking. The scheduled song leader and piano player was not able to attend, and Cliff was asked to fill in.

In the fall of 1948, Billy Graham and Cliff Barrows left YFC to begin full-time work in citywide campaigns. Cliff served as music director, song leader, and master of ceremonies at almost all of Graham’s evangelistic meetings.

In November, while staying at the motel on S. 9th Street in Modesto, California, Graham and Barrows, along with George Beverly Shea and Grady Wilson, drafted the Modesto Manifesto, a set of commitments they would seek to keep where other evangelists had failed, covering four areas:

Financial integrity
Sexual purity
Handling criticism
Reporting with integrity

In September 1950, these four men—Billy Graham, George Wilson, Grady Wilson, and Cliff Barrows—joined Ruth Graham as charter members of the newly incorporated Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).

On May 1, 2003, the Archive of American Television did an hour-and-a-half oral history interview with Cliff Barrows. Their website lists the topics as follows:

Part 1

his childhood and early influences
his love of music and Christian service
his college years and radio work
playing the trombone and joining Youth for Christ and meeting Billy Graham
the formation of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, a corporation to allow for the purchase of radio time for the Reverend Graham’s forthcoming show

Part 2

Billy Graham’s first radio program
his early experiences on television with The Hour of Decision
how the ministry and the Reverend Graham responded to communism, the civil rights movement, and JFK’s assassination
Billy Graham’s relationships with U.S. Presidents

Part 3