One of the girls, the "Informant", was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. And a Walmart all to their own. This led to the propagation of the genetic condition that gave them their distinctive blue skin color. Wait. It was real bad in her, Alva Stacy, the boys father, explained. When you look at the numbers, its clear that most of Moundsville is a buncha fun-lovin rednecks. [6], Descendants with the gene continued to live near Troublesome Creek and Ball Creek into the 20th century. She told me that her family was the blue Combses who lived up on Ball Creek. Dern it, Princeton. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Dave Roos After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in West Virginia: Many of these are types of places where old redneck ladies drive their motorized wheelchairs down the middle of town, towing their grandkids in a wagon. Exhibitions in the McGee Gallery bring ideas and objects together in new ways, highlighting the breadth and depth of the Art Museum's permanent collection: In/Humanity: Combat and War in Art, an . Everyone around here knows about the blue Fugates, says Hilda Stacy who, at 26, looks more like a sister than a mother to her children. Instead, football players bore a bronzesque gold helmet emblazoned with a blue outline of the state of West Virginia and the letters "WVU" inside an oval. Dunlaps Gun & Pawn, Hurricane, WV. then I sat down and we began to chart the family." Typically, the blue is isolated to one part of the body. Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. We just have our own way of life. 39, 1960) that the answer began to emerge. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. 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. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Dark blue lips and fingernails are the only traces of Martin Fugates legacy left in the boy; that, and the recessive gene that has shaded many of the Fugates and their kin blue for the past 162 years. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. One day, one of the older mountain men cornered the doctor. Cawein cheers their bad luck not out of malice but out of a deep respect for the blue people of Troublesome Creek. Though West Virginia has had boom-and-bust cycles since, Census Bureau data shows it has lost population every year since 2012 and now has about 1.8 million residents. The company's filing status is listed as Revoked (Failure To File Annual Report) and its File Number is 45369. She looked like she was having a heart attack. Dr. Cawein injected the dye into the volunteers, and they were amazed to see how quickly their skin changed from blue to a healthy pink, then gradually to a Caucasian white. That five-star symbol is the same as the one on the Friendly City flagwhich is drawing approval well outside of West Virginia. Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. Luna has been dead nearly 20 years now, but her widower survives. 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. Dora Bryan House Chimes, 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. The beautiful town of Berkeley Springs is one of the best places to visit in West Virginia. One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child. When Benjamin "Benjy" Stacy was born in 1975, nurses and doctors were shocked and confused. Just like the Alaskans, their blood had accumulated so much of the blue molecule that it over- whelmed the red of normal hcmoglobin that shows through as pink in the skin of most Caucasians. The risk skyrockets if you're sharing blood.". Six generations after a French orphan named Martin Fugate settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek with his redheaded American bride, his great-great-great great grandson was born in a modern hospital not far from where the creek still runs. You know theres lots of rednecks here when you look at the numbers. Bannon's emotions overflowed over Rep. Mike Gallagher bashing Wisconsin's 1950's commie witch-hunter Joseph McCarthy. They took the doctor to see their uncle, who was blue, too. While the substance isn't harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. blue people of west virginia By | January 19, 2023 Top Chef 2021 Replay , 30 Day Weather Forecast For Parker, Az , Apn Number Lookup Los Angeles County , Annie Hinsche Today , How To Cover A Wire Wreath Frame , David Honeycutt Hamilton , Nicknames For Mairead , Tubuldu Instrument Of Palawan , Hotel Mumbai Survivors Baby , Hartford Police . Martin married a red-headed American woman named Elizabeth Smith and the two set up a homestead on the banks of Troublesome Creek near Hazard County, Kentucky. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. A reference to "the Huntsville subgroup" is made in the American version of television sitcom Shameless when Kevin Ball (played by Steve Howey) discovers that he may have ancestors from that group.[10]. Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. Native Americans first began to gather in the Appalachian Mountains some 16,000 years ago. if(e.responsiveLevels&&(jQuery.each(e.responsiveLevels,function(e,f){f>i&&(t=r=f,l=e),i>f&&f>r&&(r=f,n=e)}),t>r&&(l=n)),f=e.gridheight[l]||e.gridheight[0]||e.gridheight,s=e.gridwidth[l]||e.gridwidth[0]||e.gridwidth,h=i/s,h=h>1?1:h,f=Math.round(h*f),"fullscreen"==e.sliderLayout){var u=(e.c.width(),jQuery(window).height());if(void 0!=e.fullScreenOffsetContainer){var c=e.fullScreenOffsetContainer.split(",");if (c) jQuery.each(c,function(e,i){u=jQuery(i).length>0?u-jQuery(i).outerHeight(!0):u}),e.fullScreenOffset.split("%").length>1&&void 0!=e.fullScreenOffset&&e.fullScreenOffset.length>0?u-=jQuery(window).height()*parseInt(e.fullScreenOffset,0)/100:void 0!=e.fullScreenOffset&&e.fullScreenOffset.length>0&&(u-=parseInt(e.fullScreenOffset,0))}f=u}else void 0!=e.minHeight&&f They were delighted.". 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. 12. It can make a claim that it should top this list, since it has the most people. The Blue Ridge was reached in 1670, and in 1671 another expedition encountered the first westward-flowing stream, the New River, in southwestern Virginia. Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. RoadSnacks is reader-supported. Consignment Eyeglass Frames, They wouldnt come into the waiting room. Curiosity drove him to Hazard where he was introduced to a nurse, Ruth Pendergrass, who had met a "dark blue" woman. 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. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. 5 years ago when I was on a swingerparty she got pregnant with me. This condition does, in fact, cause blue-tinted. Bessie had an iron pot of clothes boiling in her front yard, but she graciously allowed the doctor to draw some of her blood. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. 10. However, only 89% are white, and a whopping 83% finished high school. The odds against it were incalculable, but Martin Fugate managed to find and marry a woman who carried the same recessive gene. He recounted how, after hearing the story for the first time, he and his roommates would make a show of continuously checking to see if their other friends lips or skin ever looked blue. No mention of his skin color is made in the early histories of the area, but family lore has it that Martin himself was blue. 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