Because the boy was intensely blue at birth but then recovered his normal skin tones, Benjy is assumed to have inherlted only one gene for the condition. One of them even married his own aunt, and most of them had a lot of children who also married their cousins. "The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky" There was always speculation in the hollows about what made the blue people blue: heart disease, a lung disorder, the possibility proposed by one old-timer that their blood is just a little closer to their skin. But no one knew for sure, and doctors rarely paid visits to the remote creekside settlements where most of the blue Fugates lived until well into the 1950s. Most of them old people went by that name the blue Fugates. It was real bad in her, Alva Stacy, the boys father, explained. Some sources claim their are no blue . Benjy Stacy is one of the last of the blue Fugates. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. When Benjamin "Benjy" Stacy was born in 1975, nurses and doctors were shocked and confused. Its post office is closed in 1935. Published. This led to the propagation of the genetic condition that gave them their distinctive blue skin color. Some of us finished high school and became the "dreaded wife and mother"-as society portrays it. And shop at Walmart. It wasn't always this way. Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates. One relative describes her as blue all over, and another calls Luna the bluest woman I ever saw.. If their blood had a lower concentration of methemoglobin, they might only blush blue in cold weather, while people with higher concentrations of methemoglobin were bright blue from head to toe. 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. It is documented that Fugates were born in the colonies in the mid 1600's but the original progenitor has not been confirmed. So I brought back the new blood and set up my enzyme assay, Cawein continued. 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 Archives of Internal Medicine, April, 1964.2. Then he began to construct the family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate. At last they were free of their "blue" shade and were no longer embarrassed. What neither she nor Martin could have known is that they both carried the recessive gene for a rare hereditary blood disorder called methemoglobinemia. Diet: Insects, seeds, and grains. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. The gene would most likely appear in an inbred line. 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. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Many is more accurate since the practice is legal, or legal under certain circumstances, in more than 20 states. In fact, the last known blue Fugate was born in 1975, and his skin color faded to normal as he grew up. Elizabeth Smith, apparently, was as pale-skinned as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. He helped isolate an antidote for cholera, and he did some of the early work on L-dopa, the drug for Parkinsons disease. All them old fellers way back then was blue. "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. In the early 1960's, this blue malady caught the attention of Madison Cawein, an inquisitive hematologist from the University of Kentucky. A nearby family who the early Fugates married into quite extensively also carried the gene. Population: 18,763Bars per capita: 6th in West VirginiaFishing/bait shops per capita: 4thMobile home parks per capita: 5th. 2022 Science Classroom Teacher Resources. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. Rednecks love to shoot their guns and fish, and there are a really high number of ammo stores and bait shops in the area, per person. West Virginia, constituent state of the United States of America. 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. Blue Man Group will rock your world. From California herself, the informant was very curious to hear about what the people of West Virginia were like. We do not feel less-fortunate. The clinic doctors only saw her a few times in her life and never for anything serious. For the record, West Virginia has strict anti-incest laws. It like to scared me to death! Come on, Grafton rednecks. The state capital is Charleston. The famous painting of the blue Fugates is not based on an actual family photograph, but was a composite illustration created by artist Walt Spitzmiller for a 1982 magazine article. We use data, analytics, and a sense of humor to determine the dirt on places across the country. 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. Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Mikeooney. As a bonus, theres a Golden Corral, several Dollar Stores and many Waffle Houses in the area. But as Kentucky became more populated and more genes came into the Fugate family tree, there were far fewer children born blue. The Blue People of Kentucky were first diagnosed with methemoglobinemia in the 1960s by Dr. Madison Cawein, a noted hematologist. Additional comment actions. It was hard to get out, so they intermarried, says Dennis Stacy, a 51-year-old coal miner and amateur genealogist who has filled a loose-leaf notebook with the laboriously traced blood lines of several local families. All rights reserved. You might actually call Hurricane home of the rednecks with paychecks. Princeton is located down on I-77, before you make the climb into Virginia. They just accepted it as a part of who they were. In the 1880s and 1890s, writers such as Mary Noailles Murfree and John Fox Jr. traveled across Appalachia, looking for local color, and overstated the degree to which mountain populations lived in isolation. Of their seven children, four were blue. Little did they know that their union would create shades of blue people! Despite those incredible odds, this is exactly what happened with the Fugates. Rattini is accused of distributing narcotic painkillers illegally to more than 200 pharmacies across West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. He concluded that inbreeding levels in Appalachia [are neither] unique [n]or particularly common to the region, when compared with those reported for populations elsewhere or at earlier periods in American history.. "They vary in color from white to black, often have blue eyes and straight hair, and they are generally industrious. 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. So close! Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Yep, thats right. The bluest Fugates I ever saw was Luna and her kin, says Carrie Lee Kilburn, a nurse who works at the rural medical center called Homeplace Clinic. The Northfork High School "Blue Demons" were a force to be reckoned with from 1971 to 1984, setting national records including most consecutive state championships. Habitat: Thick shrubbery and areas with tall trees. Stacy counts Fugate blood in his own veins. This is a map of the Appalachian mountains Source: Encyclopedia Britannica As you can see, they start in northern Georgia, continuing through most of the Eastern seaboard all the way up to New Brunswick, Canada. The couple had eight children, including Luna. People wore jackets and hats that had the slogan "Northfork West Virginia Basketball Capital of the United States." The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. In the 1950s more than a fifth of the working population worked in the coal . Theyre prominently featured in reality television. 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. Well, according to the official bible of literature, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redneck is: A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive.. Which means lots of weekend warriors probably live here; its the families that have boats and who book nice family hunting trips. We just have our own way of life. Lappat, Hereditary Methemoglobinemia in Hemoglobin, Its Precursors and Metabolites, ed. Its common. They were real, and they really were blue, thanks to a recessive genetic condition. Luna Stacy possessed the good health common to the blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84. Everyone knew the blue Fugates were healthy people. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! Population: 10,486Mobile home parks in area: 3rd in WVBars per capita: 3rdGun stores per capita: 5th in West Virginia. You have the most bars and trailer parks per capita in the state, and your high school graduation rate is 70%. Stereotypes about West Virginian breeding practices have long been linked to the states poverty. by F. William Sunderman, J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA, 1964. Where people have deer horns on their hoods. It's also, in part, out of fear. 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. Zach took the doctor even farther up Copperhead Hollow to see his Aunt Bessie Fugate, who was blue. It's true that, through the 19 th century, transportation networks developed slowly in the rugged, westernmost portion of Virginia (incorporated as West Virginia in 1863). Theyre normal people theyre good people. God Bless America. She gets upset at all the talk of inbreeding among the Fugates. This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. You know theres lots of rednecks here when you look at the numbers. Where is this area located in eastern KY? When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery Martin Fugate arrived in the unsettled frontier of Kentucky in 1820. The odds against it were incalculable, but Martin Fugate managed to find and marry a woman who carried the same recessive gene. It is almost certain that Martin was a descendant of the Fugate family of Russell County, Virginia and probably of French origin. Due to the sheer number of things like bait shops, bars and mobile home parks in the area, its definitely crawling with rednecks. My grandmother Luna on my dads side was a blue Fugate. When asked ahout it, he shakes his head and stares steadfastly ahead. Luna has been dead nearly 20 years now, but her widower survives. They were poor people, concurs Nurse Pendergrass, but they were good.References1. In most people, there is an enzyme present called diaphorase that converts methemoglobin back into a usable form of hemoglobin. Informant: "So, what my brother told me is that there's a story that there are people in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, near the campus I guess, and there is skin is blue. It seems as if this area is generally, more wealthy than the other cities on this list. They werent sick; it was just the way they look. Cawein, Madison and E.J. I was actually born with my twin sisters fetus inside me. Bluefield State is committed to being the region's leading institution of higher education. And by God, they didnt have the enzyme diaphorase. 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. 1:52. That total makes West Virginia the 38th most populous state in the country. 3. Google Maps. The doctor was recently approached by the producers of the television show Thats Incredible. They wanted to parade the blue people across the screen in their weekly display of human oddities. Hereditary diaphorase deficiency and methemoglobinemia. She had been out in the cold and she was just blue! recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. The boy inherited his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking. Howells Pawn and Guns, New Martinsville, WV. Its nothing.. The Fugate familys condition caused the blue members to be missing that enzyme; because their methemoglobin couldnt be converted, large amounts of it built up in the blue Fugates, even before birth, causing a very obvious blue tone to their skin. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Doctors were so astonished by the color of Benjy Stacys skin that they raced him by ambulance from the maternity ward in the hospital near Hazard to a medical clinic in Lexington. The search for blue people ensued. Feeder food: Grain and birdseed. In his research, he found a 1960 article by E. M. Scott that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. As the story goes, Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek around 1820 to claim a land grant. West By God is right. They were delighted., They changed colors! remembered Pendergrass. Today I have a healthy son/nephew who is slightly green in skincolor. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. Fugates married other Fugates. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. Correction, June 9, 2008: The article originally stated that a handful of states allow marriages between first cousins. Blue Hole, West Virginia GPS Coordinates to Blue hole 39.594754,-79.748120 New Martinsville is located in the northwestern part of the state, right on the Ohio state line. Population: 7,164 Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West Virginia Bars per capita: 2nd in the state Walmart rank: 3rd Elkins is way out in the middle of nowhere south of Morgantown, at the base of the Appalachians. The following piece was collected at a dinner table with a group of girls out celebrating a friends birthday. Born Jan. 16, 1869, in Marion County, Ephraim Franklin Morgan went on to become one of West Virginia's governors. Activating it requires adding to the blood a substance that acts as an electron donor. Many substances do this, but Cawein chose methylene blue because it had been used successfully and safely in other cases and because it acts quickly. It doesnt mean the condition is gone from the family; theres a chance another child could be born with it, but the incidents of it should be fewer and farther between in the modern era. By the end of this spectacular journey, you'll be saying "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT JUST HAPPENED BUT I LOOOVED IT." Read more Blue Man Group 4,830 reviews For more than a century, these Appalachian families passed along an exceedingly rare genetic blood condition that turned their skin a disarming shade of blue. Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. It is home to so much creativity, and has been a place of devastating poverty. Wingspan: 6.3-8.3 in (Black-Capped), 5.9-7.9 in (Carolina) Chickadees are tiny little birds that are very easy to recognize because of their "black cap" and black bib. Methemoglobin which is blue, is a nonfunctional form of the red hemoglobin that carries oxygen. Google Maps. Apparently, it shows more easily when theyre cold!. If you stayed awake in high-school biology, you might remember that blood is red because red blood cells are packed with proteins called hemoglobin. I'm going to assume that by blu. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. 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. We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. Madison Cawein began hearing rumors about the blue people when he went to work at the University of Kentuckys Lexington medical clinic in 1960. March 8, 2012— -- Kerry Green was a "blue baby," born in 1964 in Tulsa, Okla., and his family was given little hope that he would live because of a malformed aorta. Green human are possible. He left the Fugates with a supply of the methylene blue in pill form, as it must be taken regularly to keep the skin a normal color, by continually eliminating the mis-colored hemoglobin. As travel became easier, more people moved into and out of the Fugates area of Kentucky, including some actual Fugates. 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. The marriage of one of their blue boys, Zachariah, to his mothers sister triggered the line of succession that would result in the birth, more than 100 years later, of Benjy Stacy. If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. The mystery behind the astonishing picture of the Fugates, which has been baffling people for years, appears to have finally been solved. Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. The gene is still around today but has now become statistically insignificant and there are no serious medical problems associated with it. 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