Resurrection Mary
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Resurrection_Cemetery_Justice_IL_1.jpg/260px-Resurrection_Cemetery_Justice_IL_1.jpg)
Resurrection Mary is a well-known Chicago area According to the story, the ghost resides in Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, a few miles southwest of Chicago. Resurrection Mary is considered to be Chicago's most famous ghost.[1][2][3]
Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along
The legend
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Willowbrook_Ballroom_1.jpg/260px-Willowbrook_Ballroom_1.jpg)
The story goes that Mary had spent the evening dancing with a boyfriend at the
She had not gotten very far when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, who fled the scene leaving Mary to die. Her parents found her and were grief-stricken at the sight of her dead body. They buried her in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a beautiful white dancing dress and matching dancing shoes. The hit-and-run driver was never found.[5][6][7]
Reported sightings
Jerry Palus, a Chicago southsider, reported that in 1939 he met a person whom he came to believe was Resurrection Mary at the Liberty Grove and Hall at 47th and Mozart (and not the Oh Henry/Willowbrook Ballroom). They danced and even kissed, and she asked him to drive her home along Archer Avenue, exiting the car and disappearing in front of Resurrection Cemetery.[8]
In 1973, Resurrection Mary was said to have shown up at Harlow's nightclub, on Cicero Avenue on Chicago's southwest side.[9][7] That same year, a cab driver came into Chet's Melody Lounge, across the street from Resurrection Cemetery, to inquire about a young lady who had left without paying her fare.[6][7]
There were said to be sightings in 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1989, which involved cars striking, or nearly striking, Mary outside Resurrection Cemetery.[6] Mary disappears, however, by the time the motorist exits the car.
She also reportedly burned her handprints into the wrought iron fence around the cemetery, in August 1976,[10] although officials at the cemetery have stated that a truck had damaged the fence and that there is no evidence of a ghost.[11]
In a January 31, 1979, article in the Suburban Trib, columnist Bill Geist detailed the story of a cab driver, Ralph, who picked up a young woman – "a looker. A blond. ... she was young enough to be my daughter — 21 tops" – near a small shopping center on Archer Avenue.[12]
"A couple miles up Archer there, she jumped with a start like a horse and said 'Here! Here!' I hit the brakes. I looked around and didn't see no kind of house. 'Where?' I said. And then she sticks out her arm and points across the road to my left and says 'There!'. And that's when it happened. I looked to my left — like this — at this little shack. And when I turned she was gone. Vanished! And the car door never opened. May the good Lord strike me dead, it never opened."
Geist described Ralph as "not an idiot or a maniac" but rather, in Ralph's own words, "a typical 52-year-old working guy, a veteran, father, Little League baseball coach, churchgoer, the whole shot". Geist goes on to say: "The simple explanation, Ralph, is that you picked up the Chicago area's preeminent ghost: Resurrection Mary."[12]
Identity of Mary
Some researchers have attempted to link Resurrection Mary to one of the many thousands of burials in Resurrection Cemetery. A particular focus of these efforts has been Mary Bregovy, who died in 1934, although her death came in an automobile accident in the downtown Chicago Loop.[13][14][15] In 1999, Chicago author Ursula Bielski documented a possible connection to Anna "Marija" Norkus, who died in a 1927 auto accident while on her way home from the Oh Henry Ballroom,[16] a theory that has gained popularity in recent years.[14]
References
- ISBN 0-924772-09-3.
- ^ Bielski, Ursula (1997). Chicago Haunts: Ghostlore of the Windy City. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press.
- ^ Chicago Quirk (October 17, 2011). "Meet Chicago's Most Famous Ghost: Resurrection Mary". Chicago Now. Archived from the original on October 19, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
- ^ "Hunting a Ghost Named Mary". Chicago Tribune. October 31, 1985.
- ^ Gorner, Peter (May 13, 1974). "Some of Chicago's Favorite Haunts". Chicago Tribune. p. B13.
- ^ a b c Taylor, Troy (2002). "MARY - THE ELUSIVE GHOST: Sightings & Encounters with Resurrection Mary". Weird & Haunted Chicago. PrairieGhosts.com.
- ^ a b c Bielski, p. 22.
- ^ Taylor and Sceurman, p. 188.
- ISBN 0-7607-5943-X.
- ^ Taylor and Sceurman, p. 189.
- ^ Taylor, Troy (2002). "Resurrection Mary: Chicago's Most Illusive Ghost!". Weird & Haunted Chicago. PrairieGhosts.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2005-07-09.
- ^ a b Geist, Bill (January 31, 1979). "Cryptic rider leaves taxi driver with the willies". Suburban Trib.
- ^ "Killed in Crash". Chicago Tribune. March 12, 1934. p. 5.
- ^ a b Bielski, pp. 15-19.
- ^ Taylor, Troy (2002). "WHO WAS RESURRECTION MARY? Theory & Conjecture into the Past of Chicago's Favorite Ghost". Weird & Haunted Chicago. PrairieGhosts.com.
- ^ Bielski, Ursula (March 23, 2007). "Marija: The half-life of Resurrection Mary". GhostVillage.com. Retrieved September 25, 2017.
Further reading
- Taylor, Troy. Haunted Illinois: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Prairie State. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2008.
- Holub, Joan. The Haunted States of America ... : Haunted Houses and Spooky Places in All 50 States ... and Canada, too!. New York, NY: Scholastic Books, 2001.
- Kaczmarek, Dale. Windy City Ghosts, Ghost Research Society Press, 2005.