Billy Sunday & Helen Amelia "Ma" Thompson Sunday
First of all I want to tell you I am not related to Billy or "Ma" Sunday.My grandmother was "Ma" Sunday's best friend during the last 20 years of her life.
I have been working on the Sunday/Thompson family history off and on for some 25 years but just lately have gotten back to it.This evening I read all the messages having to do with Billy and "Ma" Sunday.I will try to enlighten some of you of what I know but please remember I"m still doing research, so this is by no means finished or up to date.
Billy was born in 1862 in Ames, Iowa.His father William Sunday served in the Civil War from Iowa (Company E, 23rd Regiment) and died when billy was 2 months old.He is buried at Camp Patterson Missouri.I do not know who the parents of Billy were.
According to the 1860 census of Story County, Iowa, William Sunday was born in Virginia & his wife Mary Jane Cory was from Indiana (Kosciousko County).They married 18 Oct. 1856, Story County, Iowa. They had 3 boys, Albert, Edward & William Ashley "Billy" Sunday.Mrs. Sunday married 2ndly J.M. Heizer 11 Aug. 1864 in Story County, Iowa.They had 2 children Leroy and Lizzie.Lizzie was burned to death in a fire & Albert Sunday was struck in the
head by a baseball bat and was left an invalid.He died in 1893 in a home for the feeble minded.Heizer left Mary Jane in the early 1870's and she divorced him 6 Octobert 1874 in Story county, Iowa.She later married a Mr. Stowall.He died (when & where I don't know).Mary Jane Stowall died June 25, 1913 in Winona Lake, Indiana( at the home of her son Billy) and is buried in the Billy Sunday Cemetery,(also known as the Cory Burial Ground), Story County, Iowa.
Billy Sunday & Helen Amelia Thompson were married in Chicago, Illinois in 1888.They had 4 children - 1.Helen, b. 1890, Chicago, married Mark P. Haines 20 January 1913.
They had 1 son Paul who died 1957 in Phoenix, Arizona
All the Haines family are buried in Sturgis, St. Joseph County, Michigan.
2. George Sunday b. 1892, Chicago died 1933 when he fell out of a window.Some say it was suicide.He was married 3 times.The mother of his children was Harriett Mason.Their 2 sons were John & George Marquis Sunday Jr. George Marquis Sunday had a son Marquis who died 1982.I am trying to get his obituary to see if he had any children.
3. William Ashley Sunday Jr., b. 1901, Chicago, Illinois,married 4 times.As far as I know he had no children.He died in 1938 of pneumonia.
4. Paul Thompson Sunday, b. 1907, Chicago, Illinois died 1944 in a plane crash.He married 2 times.As far as I know He had no children.
"Ma" Sunday died in February 1957 in Phoenix, Arizona and is buried in Chicago, Illinois next to her husband.She never remarried.
If anyone know any additional information I would be glad to hear from you.
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Re: Billy Sunday & Helen Amelia "Ma" Thompson Sunday
linda Swystun 3/06/07