Billy Graham , the famed evangelist who became known as Americas Pastor, died at his North Carolina home on Wednesday morning. He was 99.

A family spokesman said he died from natural causes, ABC News reported. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association confirmed his death on Twitter .

Born in 1918 in Charlotte, North Carolina, William Franklin Graham Jr. was the oldest of the four children of William and Morrow Graham. He was raised on a dairy farm, and little in his childhood suggested he would become a world-renowned preacher.

Then at 16, Graham attended a series of revival meetings run by outspoken evangelist Mordecai Ham . The two months he spent listening to Hams sermons on sin sparked a spiritual awakening in Graham and prompted him to enroll at Bob Jones College. When the conservative Christian schools strict doctrine didnt align with his personal beliefs, he transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida) and joined a Southern Baptist Convention church. He was ordained in 1939.