Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of world renowned evangelist Billy Graham, has died at her home in Montreat, North Carolina, at the age of 87.

She was surrounded by her family, including Mr Graham, her husband of 64 years, and their five children, Virginia, Anne, Ruth, Nelson Edman, and Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Mrs Graham's death came just days after the announcement from Mr Graham that the pair would be buried side by side at the new Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She had been bedridden for the last two years and her health had deteriorated earlier in the week due to complications from pneumonia.

In a statement released on Thursday, Billy Graham said: "Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team. No one else could have borne the load that she carried. ... My work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support.

"I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we've had in the mountains together. We've rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in heaven."

Ruth Graham was born in Jiangsu Province in China on June 10, 1920, the daughter of Presbyterian missionary and surgeon, Nelson Bell.

It was in 1940 that she met Billy Graham when the two were students at Wheaton College in Illinois. While her husband would go on to take centre stage in global evangelism, Mrs Graham always shied away from the limelight in pursuit of a much more private ministry. She was also an accomplished poet and is often credited with raising the pair's five children single-handedly while Mr Graham was away on crusades.

Following news of her death, President George W Bush praised Mrs Graham as a "remarkable woman of faith whose life was defined by her belief in a personal, loving and gracious God".