ALEXANDRIA, Pa. — The Rev. George M. Docherty, whose sermon before President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955 helped push Congress to insert the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance, has died at 97. He died on Thanksgiving at his home in central Pennsylvania, according to his wife, Sue Docherty.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Docherty moved to the United States in 1950 to pastor a Washington, D.C., church.

"I came from Scotland, where we said 'God save our gracious queen,' 'God save our gracious king.' Here was the Pledge of Allegiance, and God wasn't in it at all," he recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2004.

Once when he knew Eisenhower would be in the congregation, Docherty delivered the sermon saying that the Pledge should acknowledge God. The next day, Rep. Charles G. Oakman, R-Mich., introduced a bill to add the phrase "under God" to the pledge; a companion bill was then introduced in the Senate. Eisenhower signed the new law on Flag Day.