Do you remember the days when you would go out on a Friday or Saturday night to the local dance club? Perhaps meeting up with a young lady or a young man to spend the evening with...dancing the night away. I personally never joined in on a dance club phase, but I did go rollerskating every Friday night during grade school through to Junior High. I did always want to learn how to tap dance and swing dance...which is completely not important to this current story. Sorry...
What happens when you are out for the evening at the local dance hall, having a great time, walk yourself home as the night is ending and end up hit and killed by a car on your way home? Well...you become known as Resurrection Mary, of course!!!
Let's hop in the car and take a trip to the Chicago area. I call shotgun!!!
The story of Resurrection Mary is about a lady ghost who "resides" in Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, which is a few miles southwest of Chicago. She is said to be Chicago's most famous ghost.
In the 1930's, different men reported that they had been driving along Archer Ave., traveling northeast between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery. Which - let me interject quickly - when you name a cemetery Resurrection, how can you not have ghosts? Okay...moving on. While driving along this road, men said that they saw a young female hitchhiker and gave her a ride. Another side thought - good thing this is a ghost story. If it were reports of men picking up women on the side of the road, this story would probably be going in a very different direction.
The young lady was described as having light blonde hair and blue eyes and dressed in a white party dress. Some reports say that she wore a thin shawl, dancing shoes, carried a small purse, and that she was very quiet. The men who picked this quiet, lovely lady up said that as they neared Resurrection Cemetery, she disappeared from the car. She never asked them to stop...she somehow got out of a moving vehicle without opening a door. Gone! Poof!
According to the Chicago Tribune, "full-time ghost hunter" Richard Crowe has collected "three dozen ... substantiated" reports of Mary from the 1930s to the present.
In 1939, a man from the south side of Chicago, Jerry Palus, said that he believed he met Resurrection Mary at the Liberty Grove and Hall at 47th and Mozart - not at the Willowbrook Ballroom. Jerry reported that he and this young lady danced and kissed. As the evening was ending, she asked him to drive her home, stating that she lived on Archer Ave. Jerry got close to Resurrection Cemetery and the lady got out of the car and disappeared in front of the cemetery.
Moving forward to 1973, it's said that Resurrection Mary had an evening out at Harlow's nightclub on Cicero Ave., in the south side of Chicago. Also in 1973, a cab driver came in to Chet's Melody Lounge, which was across the street from Resurrection Cemetery, asking about a young lady who had left his cab without paying her fare. Ummmmm...I'm wondering how badly the guy messed his pants when he realized he had just driven a ghost to the lounge.
Reports of people seeing Resurrection Mary were said to have happened in 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1989. A lot of those sightings involved cars hitting or nearly hitting a lady outside of Resurrection Cemetery. The lady hit or nearly hit by the car ends up disappearing by the time the driver gets out of their car to check if the person is okay. Not sure how you get over the scare of possibly hitting someone...much less seeing that no one is there and then realizing that maybe no one was there in the first place. Freaky!!!
People say that Resurrection Mary burned her handprints into the wrought iron fence around the cemetery. I have no idea why she would've done that...other than because she can. People working at the cemetery say that a truck had damaged the fence and they claim there's no evidence of a ghost. Party poopers!
So...who is Resurrection Mary? According to legend, Mary was a lady who spent the evening dancing with her boyfriend at the Oh Henry/Willowbrook Ballroom. At some point in time during the evening, they got into an argument and Mary left in a huff. She started walking up Archer Ave. Part way down the road, Mary was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver. It's said that the driver fled the scene and left Mary to die. Her parents eventually found her and Mary was later buried in Resurrection Cemetery. She was buried wearing a white dancing dress and matching shoes. The driver who killed her was never found.
Many researchers have tried to figure out exactly who Resurrection Mary is by looking at past stories and burials in the cemetery. One person they found was Mary Bregovy who died in 1934. She died in a car accident in the downtown Chicago Loop. 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, a theory that has gained popularity in recent years. My guess is we will never truly know who the real Mary was - or if she ever existed at all.
I remember years and years ago, my mom telling me that her sister - my aunt - and my aunt's daughter-in-law used to drive around Resurrection Cemetery looking for Mary. I will admit that I was very jealous to hear that and wished I could've gotten to Chicago to join them in the search! Sounds like they never caught sight of Mary, though...bummer!
If you're ever in the Chicago area and you want to give it a try, travel on down to Archer Ave. and check out Resurrection Cemetery. If you do happen to see Mary and are able to give her a ride, make sure she buckles up - safety first!!!
-- Audre
Photo from: wikipedia.org
Resurrection Cemetery
Sources:
wikipedia.org
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