Helen Thompson Sunday

Helen Thompson Sunday
Helen Thompson "Nell" Sunday, 1912
Born	Helen Amelia Thompson (1868-06-25)June 25, 1868 Dundee, Illinois
Died	February 20, 1957(1957-02-20) (aged 88) Phoenix, Arizona
Resting place	Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois
Residence	Chicago, Illinois
Spouse(s)	Billy Sunday
Parent(s)	William Thompson, Ellen Binnie Thompson

Helen Amelia Thompson Sunday (June 25, 1868 – February 20, 1957) was the wife of Billy Sunday, 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.

Helen Sunday, often called “Nell” or “Ma” by her husband, was born to William and Ellen Binnie Thompson in Dundee, Illinois. Her father, a prosperous businessman and a staunch Presbyterian of Scottish heritage, moved the family to Chicago in 1869.

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 Christian Endeavor Society, the Presbyterian youth organization. Recognizing her executive abilities, her father sent her to business college, although her mother objected to such “unladylike” pursuits.

According to an oft-repeated story, Helen said that she met Billy Sunday at a church social shortly after his conversion to Christianity. William Thompson at first objected to the noted White Stockings 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).

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, 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."

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, energized the Sunday publicity machine, and hovered over the collection plates. Her formidable manner “struck terror to the hearts” of those who tried to take advantage of her husband, and “tact was not her greatest virtue.” Nevertheless, 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 he could have become the sensational attraction that he in fact became without her assistance.