{"id":3788,"date":"2026-01-23T21:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3788"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:34:55","slug":"when-a-final-wish-became-a-circus-the-story-of-the-sunshine-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3788","title":{"rendered":"When a Final Wish Became a Circus: The Story of the Sunshine Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ol6uwdj4NJg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s story is the bizarre true tale of Leila Davidson Hansell, known as &#8220;The Sunshine Woman,&#8221; and the controversy surrounding her final resting place in Hendersonville, NC.<\/p>\n<p>Leila&#8217;s final wish upon her death in 1915 was to be buried above ground in a unique mausoleum topped with 147 squares of prism glass, designed to let the sun shine down on her remains. For over two decades, her glass-topped tomb became a must-see tourist attraction, fueled by a 1926 newspaper article that confirmed the skeleton could, indeed, be seen through the glass, contrary to the designer\u2019s adamant denials. <\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t miss a single one of our Stories of Appalachia! Subscribe to the Stories podcast wherever you get your podcasts. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/podcast\/stories-of-appalachia--5553692\/support\" target=\"_blank\">Consider becoming a supporter on Spreaker<\/a>, too. You\u2019ll get bonus episodes and an ad-free version of the podcast!<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_9573\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3788-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69534412\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69534412\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69534412\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69534412\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3788-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69534412\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s story is the bizarre true tale of Leila Davidson Hansell, known as &#8220;The Sunshine Woman,&#8221; and the controversy surrounding her final resting place in Hendersonville, NC. Leila&#8217;s final wish upon her death in 1915 was to be buried above ground in a unique mausoleum topped with 147 squares of prism glass, designed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[85,7,31,12],"tags":[1511,1513,1507,1510,1505,1514,1516,1508,1509,1506,1515,1512],"class_list":["post-3788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folklore","category-oddities","category-the-1910s","category-the-roaring-20s","tag-1926-newspaper-article","tag-appalachia-history","tag-hendersonville-nc","tag-j-w-stepp","tag-leila-davidson-hansell","tag-mausoleum","tag-north-carolina-mystery","tag-oakdale-cemetery","tag-prism-glass-tomb","tag-the-sunshine-woman","tag-tourist-attraction","tag-tuberculosis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-Z6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3789,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions\/3789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}