Resurrection Mary

[1][2][3] Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along Archer Avenue between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young female hitchhiker.

There are other reports that she wears a thin shawl, dancing shoes, carries a small clutch purse, and possibly that she is very quiet.

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.

[5][6][7] 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.

[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.

[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.

[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.