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even wrote (or at least, had ghost written) a syndicated feature called "Mrs. Billy Sunday’s Column," in which she dispensed advice to women about such dangers to their womanhood as dancing and flirting. Nell Sunday supported greater opportunities for women, including women's work during World War I. In one column she wrote, "At last, the doors of the Doll House have been opened and women have been invited to come into the great world outside. The rest is in their own hands."
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As Sunday's campaigns grew larger, Nell herself began to speak regularly at women's meetings and civic organizations, becoming a significant religious figure in her own right. She answered Sunday's voluminous mail, and for a few years at the height of her husband's popularity during World War I, Nell
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In 1908, Nell and Billy agreed that she would travel with him, leaving the three younger children in the care of a nanny. Nell managed the campaign organization and energized the Sunday publicity machine. Her formidable manner "struck terror to the hearts" of those who tried to take advantage of her
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Billy Sunday had left professional baseball for religious work in 1891, and by 1896, he had begun his own evangelistic career. Billy, who was naturally shy and who had suffered a series of losses as a child, leaned on Nell for emotional support as well as for such mundane chores as paying his bills,
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A "sketchy housekeeper," Nell Sunday was noted for scavenging food for later meals when invited to dinner. Thriftier than anyone else in the Sunday family, Nell was nonetheless generous with both her time and her money, especially where she perceived a genuine need. Furthermore, she had a sense of
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The
Sundays’ three sons, pampered but largely reared by strangers, embarrassed their parents with their errant lifestyles. George was arrested for drunkenness and auto theft before he committed suicide in 1933. Billy Jr. died in an automobile accident in 1938; and Paul, a test pilot, died in an
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The boys’ ex-wives remained a continuing dilemma for the
Sundays. Some blackmailed the evangelist to keep quiet about their son's infidelities. Others used gentler techniques to extract money, and Nell often provided friendly advice to the women when she responded with financial assistance.
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husband. Her loyalty and sincerity made her Billy's mainstay. Nell acted as a buffer between Sunday and the outside world, making it possible for him to concentrate on his preaching. It is doubtful that without her assistance he could have become the sensational attraction that he became.
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baseball player becoming the suitor of his daughter. Nevertheless, he softened, and the couple was married in the
Thompson home on September 5, 1888. The Sundays had four children: Helen Edith (1890), George Marquis (1892), William Ashley Jr. (1901) and Paul Thompson (1907).
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Sunday could never remember the date of this experience, although he made repeated reference to it. The oft-told conversion story poses a number of chronological difficulties. The best explication of the problems and their partial solutions is Wendy
Knickerbocker,
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When Billy Sunday died in 1935, Nell became the guardian of her husband's image while also embarking on her own 22-year ministry, preaching, encouraging young evangelists and raising money for
Christian organizations, especially rescue missions such as the
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making his travel arrangements, and generally putting his affairs in order. Billy trusted Nell's "good horse sense" and averred that he had "never yet gone contrary to Mrs. Sunday's advice" without finding himself "up against it."
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holds the complete Sunday papers, and a near exhaustive collection of Sunday print materials including biographies, collected sermons, published campaign pieces, and over twenty-five Sunday dissertations and
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As a teenager, Nell taught a Sunday School class at
Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church, and by eighteen, she had been made supervisor of the Intermediate Department and was an influential member of the
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According to an oft-repeated story, Helen said that she had met Billy Sunday at a church social shortly after his conversion to
Christianity. William Thompson at first objected to the noted
152:, the Presbyterian youth organization. Recognizing her executive abilities, her father sent her to business college, although her mother objected to such "unladylike" pursuits.
124:, an indefatigable organizer of his huge evangelistic campaigns during the first decades of the twentieth century and, eventually, an evangelistic speaker in her own right.
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Compiled by the pastor of King's Valley Chapel in
Kingfield, Maine, this website contains Sunday sermons, images, audio, biographical timeline, and online bookstore.
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The Sunday family home, known as "Mount Hood", is located in Winona Lake, Indiana. The home is maintained as a museum by the Winona
History Center at Grace College.
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airplane crash in 1944. Furthermore, their oldest child, Helen Haines, though happily married, developed a degenerative disease and died of pneumonia in 1932.
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humor that "helped her bear heavy tragedies and got her easily over some rough places." And she could laugh at herself as well as others.
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229:, where she had been spending the winter with her grandson, Paul Haines. Old friends conducted her funeral. After two eulogies,
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said, "I can hear Ma Sunday now saying, 'That's enough of this foolishness. Let's get down to business and talk about Jesus.'"
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The Billy Graham Center has a large collection of Sunday images and content, including part of the Sunday papers on microfilm
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222:, where she was given an honorary degree in 1940. (A residence hall on the Greenville campus was also named in her honor.)
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President Alva J. McClain, who was introducing her, "You sit down now so I can talk to these young people about the Lord!"
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360:(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 101. An extensive collection of Nell Sunday's columns are available in the
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In her later years, Nell Sunday suffered from cataracts, heart attacks, and cancer. In 1957, she died in
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399:. Billy called them "damnable, gold-digging, lazy, useless dolls." Billy Sunday to Nell Sunday (1929),
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Nell was the second of five children. Her oldest sister, Flora
Thompson Hopkins, was president of the
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Helen Sunday, called "Nell" or "Ma" by her husband, was born to William and Ellen Binnie Thompson in
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In her early years, the pastor of Jefferson Park Presbyterian was the noted evangelical
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There are numerous letters from wives and ex-wives to the Sundays in the
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Giant for God: A Biography of the Life of William Ashley ("Billy") Sunday
331:(Boyce, VA: Carr Publishing Company, Inc. 1951), 245, 289; Bob Jones ,
323:(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955), 76, 16; Elijah P. Brown,
327:(New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914), 232; Melton Wright,
203:, where her husband had been converted. On one occasion she told
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255:, and her younger sister, Ada, was married to early film maker
364:, (Wheaton, IL: Wheaton College, Billy Graham Center, 1978) .
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Preacher: Billy Sunday and the Big-Time American Evangelism
335:(Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1985), 89, 91.
307:(Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2000), 59-63, 79-89.
136:. Her father, a prosperous businessman and a staunch
120:(June 25, 1868 – February 20, 1957) was the wife of
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Cornbread and Caviar: Reflections and Reminiscences
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Remarkable Ma Sunday: The Story of a Wonderful Life
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358:Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America
214:Nell Sunday lived long enough to speak at early
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259:. "Flora Hopkins, WCTU Leader, Dies at 78,"
140:of Scottish heritage, moved the family to
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537:Burials at Forest Home Cemetery, Chicago
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293:(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1957), 8-9.
218:crusades, and she frequently visited
416:(New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), 300.
532:American people of Scottish descent
466:Archives of the Billy Graham Center
276:, who later served as president of
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362:Papers of William and Helen Sunday
253:Women's Christian Temperance Union
32:Helen Thompson "Nell" Sunday, 1912
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547:People from West Dundee, Illinois
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459:The Morgan Library—Grace College
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321:Billy Sunday Was His Real Name
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278:Princeton Theological Seminary
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164:Evangelistic campaign manager
377:, Box 11, Folder 5, Reel 17.
118:Helen Amelia Thompson Sunday
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403:, Box 3, Folder 37, Reel 2.
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205:Grace Theological Seminary
150:Christian Endeavor Society
517:20th-century evangelicals
512:19th-century evangelicals
386:Dorsett, 130-31, 159-160.
373:"Having Faith in Women,"
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453:Billy Sunday Home Museum
289:Opal Cording Overmeyer,
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261:Wisconsin State Journal
128:Early life and marriage
305:Sunday at the Ballpark
201:Pacific Garden Mission
522:American evangelicals
476:, and campaign music
325:The Real Billy Sunday
317:William G. McLoughlin
274:Francis Landey Patton
111:Ellen Binnie Thompson
90:Forest Park, Illinois
42:Helen Amelia Thompson
20:Helen Thompson Sunday
527:American evangelists
447:Billy Sunday On-line
85:Forest Home Cemetery
542:People from Chicago
194:A career of her own
472:, Sunday ephemera
257:George Kirke Spoor
552:Women evangelists
484:Ma Sunday's grave
220:Bob Jones College
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109:William Thompson,
66:February 20, 1957
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100:Billy Sunday
68:(1957-02-20)
507:1957 deaths
502:1868 births
250:Dane County
496:Categories
434:Jones, 94.
48:1868-06-25
144:in 1869.
106:Parent(s)
181:Children
462:theses.
142:Chicago
96:Spouse
237:Notes
486:and
63:Died
38:Born
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340:^
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46:(
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