ONE steamy Sunday morning last July, Lyndon Johnson assembled 75 friends and aides in the White House movie theater for a 35-minute prayer service conducted by his weekend guest, Evangelist Billy Graham. It was all very informal. Graham read a few verses from the Bible, paid gracious tribute to the Johnsons in a brief sermon, and later joined the impromptu congregation for coffee and small talk in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The idea for the service was Johnson's. However, when he was told that no similar rite had ever been held in the Executive Mansion, he hastily clamped a secrecy lid...
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