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Resurrection Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resurrection Mary is a well known Chicago area ghost story of the "Vanishing hitchhiker" a type of folklore that is known from many cultures. The urban legend is based outside of Resurrection cemetery in Justice, Illinois, a few miles southwest of Chicago. Resurrection Mary is considered to be Chicago's most famous ghost. 

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Since the 1930's, several men driving northeast on Archer Avenue between the

Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young

female hitchhiker. This young woman is dressed somewhat formally in a white party

dress and said to have light blond hair and blue eyes. There are other reports that

she wears a thin shawl, dancing shoes, carries a small clutch purse and possibly that

she is very quiet. When the driver nears Resurrection Cemetery, the young woman asks to be let out, whereupon she disappears into the cemetery. According to the Chicago Tribune full time ghost hunter, the late Richard Crowe has collected " Three dozen..substantiated" reports of Mary from the 1930's to the present. 
 

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The Legend

The story goes that Mary had spent the evening dancing with a boyfriend at the Oh Henry Ballroom. At some point,  they got into an argument and Mary stormed out.

 

She left the ballroom and started walking up Archer Avenue. 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.

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Reported Sightings

Jerry Palus a Chicago southsider, reported tha in 1039 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 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.

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In 1973, Resurrection Mary was said to have shown up a Harlow's nightclub, on Cicero Avenue on Chicago's southwest side. 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.

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There were said to be sightings in 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1989, which involved cars striking, or nearly striking Mary outside Resurrection Cemetery. Mary disappears by the time the motorist exits the car.

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She also reportedly burned her handprints into the wrought iron fence around the cemetery gate, in August 1976, although official at the cemetery have stated that a truck had damaged the fence and that there is no evidence of a ghost.

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In a January 31st, 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.

 

         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

        thats 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 prominent ghost Resurrection Mary. "

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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. She is buried in an unmarked grave to avoid vandalism. Her crave is in section mm in the cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago author Ursula Bielski in 1999 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 wich has gained popularity in recent years. While it is true that Anna Norkus was on the way home from the O'Henry ballroom, she did not die on Archer road. Miss Norkus was killed when her fathers car veered off the road and dropped 25 feet in a railroad cut at 67th and Harlem ave. This author doubts that Miss Norkus is Resurrection Mary since she was 12 years old and is buried in St. Casimir cemetery in Alsip, IL. not in Resurrection. 

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Three films titled Resurrection Mary and based on the legend have been released:  one in 2002 starring Wilford Brimley. One in 2005  featuring Joe Estevez,  and one in 2007. All three films portray Mary as a sinister or vengeful spirit.

 

Source: Wikipedia,  Troy Taylor, Ursula Bielski, Bill Geist, Mark Sceurman, Peter Gorner, Chicago Tribune, Kenan Heise

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This is the location of Mary's grave in Resurrection Cemetery. Her original grave had a marker. but due to the fact that it was widely known and all the people that were either curious or possibly even vandalized the Cemetery chose to move her to a different location and left it unmarked. The location was revealed to me by a co-worker of mine that grew up in the house that was owned by the Bregovy family. They knew the family and he showed me the location. It was also verified by local ghost hunter, author and researcher Dale Kaczmarek of the Ghost Research Society.

Was Mary a real person or just a legend ????

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