10/10/2019
SHE’S BA-AACK! "NAPERVILLE’S GHOST LADY" RETURNS TO TELL NAPERVILLE’S TRUE HAUNTED HISTORY
After nearly a three year hiatus, Diane Ladley, known locally as “Naperville’s Ghost Lady” has once again taken up her lantern and EMF “ghost meters" to conduct her history-based ghost tours in Naperville’s beautiful Historic District, for Ursula Bielski’s CHICAGO HAUNTINGS tour company.
Ladley is a nationally award-winning storyteller named by her peers as, “America’s Ghost Storyteller”. Yet her skillful storytelling and original Naperville ghost stories on her former haunted tours quickly earned her local fame and another title; “Naperville’s Ghost Lady”. Her tours usually began and ended with requests from fans for autographs and group photos with the popular resident storyteller.
Author of NAPERVILLE’S HAUNTED MEMORIES (formerly HAUNTED NAPERVILLE, Arcadia Publishing) and HAUNTED AURORA (The History press), Ladley collected ghost stories while growing up in Naperville since 1961. In 2004 she began giving haunted walking and trolley tours after becoming disabled with severe fibromyalgia syndrome. Says Ladley, “I turned my physical therapy walks into a small business venture, Haunted Hometowns ghost tours. No one had ever before even known Naperville was haunted, much less had any idea it had so many spooky stories from our rich, long history. It was a fascinating way to teach local history to people, so I took great care in making sure my stories were factually accurate, even having the Naper Settlement historian proofread my book. Eventually I launched even more tours in downtown Aurora and in Elgin’s cemeteries.”
Ladley's was the first tour company in the nation to hand out EMF “ghost meters” to her tour guests, like the ghost hunting TV shows use, offering a unique thrill. “There have been plenty of times the meters have gone off with no logical explanation,” says Ladley. "The Naperville tour has always been quite lively with the unexplained.”
But Ladley's health grew worse under the stress of running a fast-growing company, and she personally hosted fewer and fewer tours. In 2017 she reluctantly had to close her business after thirteen years. But she entrusted the lifelong work of her authentic ghost stories to Ursula Bielski, founder of CHICAGO HAUNTINGS, whom she always admired. “These ghostly history stories are my lasting legacy to my beloved hometown, Naperville. I felt they were in safe hands with Ursula.” But she continued her passion for ghost stories by launching the podcast, HIST-EERIE, history’s eeriest, true ghost stories from around the world.
“A few weeks ago I got an email from Ursula,” says Ladley. “Her usual Naperville ghost host broke his foot, and there was no time to hire and train another person to tell all the ghost stories in the nine sites along the two-hour walking tour of Naperville’s Historic District. She asked if I’d be willing to host during October, and I’m glad to be able to help.”
The NAPERVILLE HAUNTINGS Ghost Tours with Diane Ladley run Fridays and Saturdays through November 3rd, and Halloween night, Thursday, October 31. The tours start at 8:00 PM outside of Quigley’s Irish Pub, 43 E. Jefferson Ave. in downtown Naperville. Tickets are $26 adults, $15 children 8 to 12. Reservations are required, and can be booked online at Chicagohauntings.com/naperville-hauntings-ghost-walks.
Diane Ladley’s famed Haunted Naperville Tours live on with Chicago Hauntings! Join us for an eerie, on foot excursion, departing from Quigley’s Pub in downtown Naperville, and experience the most haunted locations in this historic and storied town up close and personal with your expert guide. Se...
