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Resurrection Cemetery is home to one of Chicago's, and maybe Illinois's in general, most famous ghosts. She is the ghost legends are made of. There are many stories similar to, or even copycats of, but there is only one "Resurrection Mary".
Mary, in life, was a young beautiful Polish girl. She is invariably described as being a blond, blue-eyed, very striking female. Who she was exactly is still a mystery, but the undisputed fact is that she was killed in the 1930's in an accident after coming home from a night of dancing at the Oh Henry Ballroom. Some credit her name as being Mary Bregovy, but that is unsubstantiated. The first sighting of her ghost didn't come until about five years after her death.
A cab driver is credited, or documented, with having first seen the spirit in 1939. He had picked up a beautiful blond girl on Archer Avenue on a snowy night. One of the first things he noticed, besides her beauty, was the fact that she had no coat on in such brutal weather. She wore just a long white gown. She instructed him to drive north on Archer Avenue, and he stopped when she told him to stop. When he turned to look at her, she was gone, and he realized he was in front of Resurrection Cemetery. He swears no door in the cab ever opened, and he was baffled as to how she got out.
Over the years there have been many sightings of Mary, mostly by young men. Some have even claimed to have touched or kissed her, stating always that she was very cold. The most famous incident occurred in December of 1977. A motorist was passing by the cemetery when he noticed a young woman inside holding the bars of the gate. Thinking someone was locked inside, the man called the police. When the cops arrived, there was no woman, but two bars of the gate had been bent and bore the imprint of human hands. The amount of strength and heat need to accomplish such a feat could not be generated by a mere mortal. The spectacle generated many curiosity seekers, and those sections of the gate were cut away by supervisors at the cemetery. They were finally welded back in by embarrassed officials. Nobody, including a number of experts, has been able to explain how those marks in the bars came to be.
So if you're driving along Archer Avenue one night and a pretty girl in a white party gown asks you for a ride, why don't you help her out? Mary has never been known for anything fiercer than a penchant for dancing. Who knows? If you're a handsome young fella, maybe you'll get a kiss from those icy lips.
Resurrection Cemetery is located along Archer Avenue in Justice, Illinois. Follow 95th Street to Roberts Road, which goes north to Archer. The cemetery is located at 7600 South Archer Avenue. You can also go to 8900 Archer Avenue, the site of Mary's favorite dance hall, Oh Henry's. It is now called the Willowbrook.
If anyone out there has had an experience with Resurrection Mary or knows of further details to this story, I'd appreciate it if you would E-mail me.
