Films That People Feel Guilty for Not Seeing. This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as info-tainment. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". The Blue Ribbon Arson Committee is . Scott, E.M. then I sat down and we began to chart the family." The West Virginia motto is Montani semper liberi, and the state is one of the most mountainous in the country; sometimes it is called the "little Switzerland" of America, and once I heard an irreverent local citizen call it the "Afghanistan of the United States. Researchers believe this to truly be the case, a result of the family suffering from a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, which is an excess of methemoglobin in the red blood cells of the body. Feeder food: Grain and birdseed. The blood disorder is inherited as a simple recessive trait - meaning that to get the disorder, a person would have to inherit two genes, one from each parent. the blue color was gone from their skin," Cawein said. So close! Published November 21, 2021 Updated November 29, 2021 For nearly 200 years, the Fugates known as the blue people of Kentucky remained largely sealed off from the outside world as they passed their blue skin from generation to generation. When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery, Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security, Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications, reactions to certain topical pain relievers. Cawein would have no part of it, and he related with glee the news that a film crew sent to Kentucky from Hollywood fled the two mean dogs in every front yard without any film. 3 of 10 isnt good enough; think of how high you wouldve finished on this list had more of you ditched class to head to the hills on Friday mornings like a lot of your friends. Eventually, a nurse named Ruth Pendergrass heard of them, and, along with a hematologist named Madison Cawein III, decided to go meet these locally famous blue people in person. We do not feel less-fortunate. You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls. Most of the Fugates lived long and healthy lives. The answer is simple. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. The solution, oddly enough, was a commonly used dye called methylene blue. So, youd think people who are rednecks would be proud to be called a redneck. One of the girls, the "Informant", was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. Blue skin. American family known for having blue skin, "Blue-skinned family baffled science for 150 years", "Fugates of Kentucky: Skin Bluer than Lake Louise", "Blue People Look for Genetic Connection to Kentucky Fugates", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue_Fugates&oldid=1141206898, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 22:29. She had been out in the cold and she was just blue! recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. Its common. Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? she asked the doctors. They eventually came to the attention of the hematologist Madison Cawein III, who with the assistance of the nurse Ruth Pendergrass made a detailed study of their condition and ancestry. Cancel any time, no strings attached. Madison Cawein began hearing rumors about the blue people when he went to work at the University of Kentuckys Lexington medical clinic in 1960. From California herself, the informant was very curious to hear about what the people of West Virginia were like. Adena burial mound. "The beginning of this story is so wild because Martin moved to Kentucky from Europe and married a complete stranger, a nonrelative who just happened to have the same mutation," says Lewis. The Fugates, a family living in the hills of Kentucky starting in the 19th century, were commonly known as the "Blue Fugates"[1] or the "Blue People of Kentucky". The story of an Appalachian malady, an inquisitive doctor, and a paradoxical cure. 11 HINTS YOU MIGHT BE DESCENDED FROM ALIENS, FUGATES OF KENTUCKY: SKIN BLUER THAN LAKE LOUISE As My World Turns, If Your Skin Is Blue, Dont Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative interesting12, Daily News investigates: Mystery of family with blue skin solved | Bazaar Daily News, If Your Skin Is Blue, Don't Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative - interesting12. font-family: 'MontserratExtraBold'; Cawein needed fresh blood to do an enzyme assay. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. Zach took the doctor even farther up Copperhead Hollow to see his Aunt Bessie Fugate, who was blue. His lips and fingernails still turn a shade of purple-blue when he gets cold or angry a quirk that so intrigued medical students after Benjys birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. The disorder can cause heart abnormalities and seizures if the amount of methemoglobin in the blood exceeds 20 percent, but at levels between 10 and 20 percent it can cause blue skin without other symptoms. I can see that old blue running out of my skin, he confided. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, This is redneck wonderland. Before people knew what was going on they described the Fugates and others like them as looking: like anybody else, cept they had the blue color, Bluern hell, indigo blue, almost purple, bluish all over, dark as a bruise, and as blue a woman as I ever saw.. His lips and fingernails still turn a shade of purple-blue when he gets cold or angry a quirk that so intrigued medical students after Benjy's birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. Our skimmable newsletter is delivered to your inbox each week, giving you 5 things you need to read and get smarter. Of their seven children, four were reported to be blue. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. At the National Press Club on Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney noted that his maternal grandmother is descended from someone named Cheney, then quipped, So we had Cheneys on both sides of the familyand we dont even live in West Virginia. remembered Pendergrass. It can be brought on by several things: abnormal hemoglobin formation, an enzyme deficiency, and taking too much of certain drugs, including vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting and is abundant in pork liver and vegetable oil. RAYLAND, Ohio (WTRF) A house fire in Rayland over the weekend has been deemed an arson fire by the State Fire Marshal's office. The methaemoglobinaemia condition, or met-H, reduces someones ability to carry oxygen in the blood, leaving it darker than the colour typically found in veins. Luna was bluish all over. "The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky" Blue Grass Riding Club Of West Virginia, Inc. is a West Virginia Domestic Profit Corporation filed on January 19, 1965. This brief history has been gleaned from old family records, correspondence with other members, and histories of Ritchie, Barbour, Harrison and Randolph Counties, West Virginia. Its a part of our culture. He remembered that the Ritchie siblings "were really embarrassed about being blue." A nearby family who the early Fugates married into quite extensively also carried the gene. You have the most bars and trailer parks per capita in the state, and your high school graduation rate is 70%. Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. Normally diaphorase converts methemoglobin back to hemoglobin. West Virginia Get facts and photos about the 35th state. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible West Virginia Mountains Fall Foliage The Mountain Spruce Fall Colors Beautiful Pictures On a hypothesis, he gave a substance called methylene blue to family members who were willing to take it. From a history of Perry County and some Fugate family Bibles listing ancestors, Cawein has constructed a fairly complete story. There are other ways to get blue skin without inheriting it, though. "Within a few minutes. All he needed was a substance that could "donate" a free electron to the methemoglobin, allowing it to bond with oxygen. Luna has been dead nearly 20 years now, but her widower survives. In 2021, the novel Blue-Skinned Gods by S. J. Sindu references a family from Kentucky with methemoglobinemia but does not use the surname Fugate. He knew the same thing was happening in this secluded corner of Appalachia. It was real bad in her, Alva Stacy, the boys father, explained. See the answer. While the substance isn't harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. The condition was clearly genetic, but the key for Cawein was reading reports of hereditary methemoglobinemia among isolated Inuit populations in Alaska where blood relatives often married. Population: 5,626High school graduation rate: 72%Gun stores per capita: 5th in WVFishing/bait per capita: 3rd in the state. Benjy lost his blue tint within a few weeks, and now he is about as normal looking a seven-year-old boy as you could hope to find. The clinic doctors only saw her a few times in her life and never for anything serious. She also states that the union of Martin and Elizabeth were probably not the originators of the gene as their marriage took place too late. If youre analyzing smaller cities in West Virginia with blue collar workers, where people have lots of options for drinking, smoking, hunting and Walmarting, this is an accurate list. In online research, there was no mention made of "blue" people as recorded in the genealogy book, The Fugate Family of Russell County Virginia, published in 1986, but it has been confirmed in the Fugate discussions on the Genforum. If the blue people did have methemoglobinemia, the next step was to find out the cause. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. When there, you will find Berkeley Springs State Park, a park that is built around the city's spa and mineral water culture. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible Stephanie Pittman 561 followers More information Blue People of West Virginia | . Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. During the same time period, missionaries reported pervasive ignorance and poverty, with large families living together in ramshackle cabins. Even so, Cawein still gets calls for advice. The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. You couldve done even better than that. Population: 6,427High school graduation rate: 70%Bars per capita: 1st in WVMobile home parks per capita: 1st. In 2019, the novel The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson, described a fictional version of the Fugate family during the Great Depression. One of the supermarket tabloids once sent a reporter to find out about the blue people, and she was distressed with his preoccupation with intermarriages. Book is out of print, borrowed from Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO. The Blue Fugates have essentially now gone from reality to legend. Martin Fugate carried the recessive gene and the odds that he could have married a woman with the same recessive gene were overwhelming - but that is exactly what happened. His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. She was a sister to one of the Fugate women. About this same time, another of the blue Combses, named Luke, had taken his sick wife up to the clinic at Lexington. Google Maps. Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution. Bannon Has A Moment. The company's filing status is listed as Revoked (Failure To File Annual Report) and its File Number is 45369. Hearing this story and conducting some research of my own led me to believe that people love to come up with their explanation for things they cannot explain, no matter how perplex. So I knew we had the defect defined.. 1995-2022 Ancestral Findings, LLC. I'm going to assume that by blu. $ 26,354. The only thing Stacy cant or wont remember is that his wife Luna was blue. She has lived in the primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall Mountain her entire life. Published. People wore jackets and hats that had the slogan "Northfork West Virginia Basketball Capital of the United States." As coal mining and the railroads brought progress to Kentucky, the blue Fugates started moving out of their communities and marrying other people. 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