Hundreds of people have seen her. Dozens have danced with her. A handful even claim they’ve kissed her. She walks along Archer Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, or hitches rides along it. Sometimes she’s seen lying in a heap along the border of a cemetery or walking or dancing within its gates. Her name is Resurrection Mary, and her story has frightened, fascinated, and confounded local residents of Chicago and Justice, for the past seventy years.
According to local lore, Mary was a girl of sixteen in 1934. She was fond of dancing and often frequented the O’Henry Ballroom (now known as the Willowbrook) on Archer Avenue, located on the outskirts of Chicago. One winter night, Mary and her boyfriend got into an argument on the dance floor. Mary stormed out of the club and began walking home, along the desolate stretch of Archer Avenue towards her house. As she walked alongside Resurrection Cemetery, an automobile passing her screeched out of control, collided with her, and killed her. The driver panicked and left the scene, and was never caught or held responsible for the death.
Mary’s family and friends, who lived in a close knit Polish community, mourned her passing and tried to move on. She was buried within the cemetery she died next to. For five years she laid at rest, buried in the very gown and dancing shoes she had died in.
Jerry Palus was a young man who often visited the O’Henry Ballroom in 1939. He often went alone in an effort to approach women. One night he approached a beautiful young girl who sported striking blonde hair and who wore a flowing white gown. They danced all night, but Jerry was a bit baffled. The girl had hardly uttered a word all night, even though they had been dancing with each other for hours. As the night came to a close, Jerry offered to drive the girl home.
As they drove up Archer Avenue, Jerry was beginning to get worried. The girl wouldn’t speak beyond instructing him where to drive. As they approached the gates of the cemetery, the girl suddenly said “I must get out here. You can not follow.” He stopped the car, she got out, and as she walked towards the gates she disappeared.
The next day, Jerry went to the address the girl had said was their final destination. The woman who answered the door told him that no one who matched the girl’s description lived there. Jerry saw a picture hanging behind her on the wall and recognized it as the same girl whom he had courted the night before. When he pointed this out, the woman told him that the girl in the picture was her daughter, who had been dead for five years.
Since that night in 1939, literally hundreds of people have seen Mary. She usually appears to men who are travelling alone, although she has also been sighted by women and groups. Most of the people who encounter Mary describe two tell-tale traits of hers: she hardly speaks and she is cold to the touch.
One of the most intriguing twists to the Mary tale occurred in 1977. A man driving by the cemetery saw a young girl who appeared to be trapped inside. She was clutching the bars of the cemetery’s iron fence and looked to be extremely frightened. He travelled to the nearest police station and told them what he had seen. When they all returned, there was no sign of the girl, but there were two bars which were bent and twisted. Upon them were the very discernible handprints of a child, which appeared to be melted into the metal. Cemetery officials removed the bars and had them examined. It was determined that an incredible amount of heat would have to be applied to twist the bars in that fashion. They set the bars back in place, although they reshaped and repainted them. Regardless of their alterations, the bars have always returned to a gnarled state and always display a pattern resembling a handprint on them.
The legend of Resurrection Mary has grown to be nationally known. There are other states which boast tales remarkably reminiscent to that of Mary. New Jersey has two: The Legend of Annie’s Road in Totowa and The White Lady of Newark’s Branch Brook Park. Bristol, Pennsylvania is home to Midnight Mary, and Altoona is haunted by a similar apparition known as the White Lady of the Buckhorn. Whether some of these stories are copycats of the other or they all sprang up from the same place in the collective unconscious of people throughout the country, there seems to be something of an American fascination with this brand of ghost legend.
Resurrection Mary still periodically appears in the area around Archer Avenue. Police constantly patrol the Resurrection Cemetery, but they have not managed to dissuade the flocks of curious who visit the area looking to dance a midnight dance with Mary.
