This week in Christian history: Bob Marley baptized; Billy Sunday dies; pope defends indulgences

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, November 03, 2024

Billy Sunday dies – Nov. 6, 1935

Famed American evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935), as seen in a photograph taken in 1921. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when the Rev. Billy Sunday, a famous early 20th-century American fundamentalist revival preacher, died at the age of 71 following a heart attack.

Sunday, whose revival events were known to bring tens of thousands of people daily to the same place for weeks on end, had been in poor health since 1933 yet remained an active preacher.

The famed preacher and former professional baseball player had been staying at the house of his brother-in-law William J. Thompson, when, according to a New York Times obituary, he began to suffer “queer pains.”

“The pains he complained of were in his arms and elbows,” Sunday’s wife, Helen, told the outlet. “We had a doctor for him and he told me what to do.”

“Tonight I brought Billy his dinner, and even got him some special ice cream. He seemed all right. But suddenly at 8 o’clock he said: ‘Oh, I feel so dizzy.’ Then he died.”

Helen Sunday also told the newspaper that she was “glad it came like that because Billy used to always pray: ‘O Lord when I have to go, please make it quickly.’”