Where Does Resurrection Mary Dance? Her Suburban Haunt Is Gone

WILLOW SPRINGS, IL — Resurrection Mary is said to be beautiful, but aloof — the kind of woman that men work up the courage to ask to dance.

Yet men have claimed to have done so, and their stories have become legend in the Chicago area. According to the Chicago Hauntings website, a few young men saw her more than eight decades ago at what was then the Oh Henry Ballroom, later the Willowbrook Ballroom.

Share your favorite Urban Legends or spooky experiences near you in the comments below.

They danced with her, then offered her a ride home. She squeezed into the front seat, but vanished when they passed the gates of the nearby Resurrection Cemetery. The men later learned she had died in a car accident.

In the years since, men have reported meeting a young woman at the Willowbrook and dancing with her, describing her as physically and emotionally cold, according to Chicago Hauntings. She accepted rides home, but would disappear near the cemetery.

But just days before Halloween in 2016, a fire destroyed the Willowbrook Ballroom, 8900 Archer Ave., which had been built in 1921.

Shortly after, a nonprofit group, Dance of Life Foundation, formed to raise money to rebuild the ballroom. Its mission was to "enhance and enrich the quality of life through dance."

According to an April 2017 story in the Daily Southtown, Dance of Life had raised $1.9 million for the project and aimed to raise another $1 million by September of that year.

But by February 2019, the foundation was apparently no longer in the picture, according to Crain's Chicago Business. The 12-acre ballroom site was set to be redeveloped into 168 condominiums and 42 townhouses, a plan which the Willow Springs Village Board approved, the publication reported.

The organization is listed in the Guidestar's nonprofit database as forming in 2016.

Dance for Life is not listed in the Illinois attorney general's charity database.

Whatever the case, it remains unclear where Resurrection Mary is dancing these days.