Granville Oral Roberts was an American Pentecostal televangelist. He was the founder of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University. His ministries reached millions of followers worldwide for more than six decades.

Roberts was born in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, the fifth and youngest of Rev. Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudia Priscilla Irwin.

Roberts began a life in poverty and nearly died of tuberculosis at age 17. After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University and Phillips University. In 1938 he married a preacher’s daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock.

Oral Roberts had a vast impact on the Protestant community. According to one authority, in conservative Protestant culture, his ministry had a worldwide impact second only to Billy Graham.

Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009)