William A. Sunday ("Billy") was born November 19, 1862, in a two-room log cabin near Ames, Iowa. His father, a Union soldier, died of pneumonia soon after Billy was born.

When Billy was a young man he became an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox. One night he heard his mother's favorite song, "Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" being sung on a street corner in Chicago. He went to the Pacific Garden Mission and was saved.

He held more than three hundred crusades in thirty-nine years. It is estimated that a hundred million people heard him speak in great tabernacles before public address systems were invented. More than a million people made a profession of faith in Christ as Saviour under his preaching. Dr. Homer Rodeheaver called him "the greatest Gospel preacher since the Apostle Paul."