The strain of inherited blue began to disappear as the recessive gene spread to families where it was unlikely to be paired with a similar gene. Where is this area located in eastern KY? The man who discovered the cure for methemoglobinemia was Madison Cawein III, a hematologist (blood doctor) at the University of Kentucky who heard tales of the "blue people" and went looking for specimens in the 1960s. Why can colloidal silver turn your skin blue? 39, 1960) that the answer began to emerge. The couple had eight children, including Luna. Grafton has the highest percentage of its population that didnt finish high school. 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. Cawein needed fresh blood to do an enzyme assay. For more West Virginia reading, check out: In order to rank the most redneck cities in West Virginia, we had to determine what criteria makes a redneck. I'm going to assume that by blu. 20 Fine Arts Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506. https://artmuseum.wvu.edu. 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. In the early 1960's, this blue malady caught the attention of Madison Cawein, an inquisitive hematologist from the University of Kentucky. "She had been out in the cold and she was just blue!" recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. Some say 99%. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. For some, though, there was a pain not seen in lab tests. 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 . Dating back to the early 1800s, an isolated family in eastern Kentucky who can trace their roots back to a French orphan started producing children who were blue. Well, there are more intriguing blue things in Kentucky than just the moon. You know theres lots of rednecks here when you look at the numbers. The drugs effects are temporary, as methylene blue is normally excreted in the urine. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. it is a blood disorder in which their blood does not oxygenate correctly. Admitted to the union as the 35th state in 1863, it is a relatively small state. 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. Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. Martin and Elizabeth set up housekeeping on the banks of Troublesome and began a family. Whoo-whee, New Martinsville! In response, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia railed against the veep, accusing him of astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen. Howd West Virginia get a reputation for inbreeding? All rights reserved. Have you ever heard the song, Blue Moon of Kentucky? Its pretty well-known and popular. In most people, there is an enzyme present called diaphorase that converts methemoglobin back into a usable form of hemoglobin. What is a redneck anyways? We see fit that they will grow up to be strong holler girls or boys. They were bluern hell, Cawein says. She lives alone in one of the. The Blue People of Kentucky were first diagnosed with methemoglobinemia in the 1960s by Dr. Madison Cawein, a noted hematologist. 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. One relative describes her as blue all over, and another calls Luna the bluest woman I ever saw.. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. 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. The Fugate Family of Russell County, Virginia: A Genealogy of the Descendants of Francis, Benjamin, Colbert, Zachariah, Henley & William Fugate, Settlers of Moccasin Valley from 1772. Blood is also likely to be a chocolate brown color instead of bright red in patients with methemoglobinemia. Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. It's a vote cast not just out of allegiance. This publication also contains information on state and federal agencies; postal information; the Constitutions of the United States and West Virginia; and, considerable information on counties, municipalities and various organizations. Luna Stacy possessed the good health common to the blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84. The methylene blue he used on them is a dye a blue dye, ironically. The blueness increases with increasing methemoglobin levels. "Methomoglobin is an oxidized form of hemoglobin that has a decreased affinity for oxygen, resulting in a reduced ability to release oxygen to tissues." Luke was just as blue as Lake Louise on a cool summer day, doctor Charles H. Behlen II told the Tri-City Herald in 1974. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. Habitat: Thick shrubbery and areas with tall trees. Only adopted cousins are allowed to marry, while in Vermont, Virginia, and many other states, first cousins can tie the knot. If theyd immigrated to other areas, even other areas of Kentucky, they likely would have married non-relatives, and the condition would have faded out of the family long before it did. Some sources claim their are no blue . ( Returnto the corrected sentence.). 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). Apparently, it shows more easily when theyre cold!. Buckhannon is a town thats 95% white, where 3 out of 10 people didnt graduate from high school. They were poor people, concurs Nurse Pendergrass, but they were good.References1. Set in West Virginia, it features cannibalistic mountain men, horribly disfigured from generations of incest. Green human are possible. She gets upset at all the talk of inbreeding among the Fugates. Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. Mountain People. Over time, fewer and fewer babies were born blue, and those who were took a methylene blue pill once a day to put the pink back in their cheeks. Called methaemoglobinaemia (commonly known as met-H), the condition reduces the individuals ability to carry oxygen in their blood. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. 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. Since rail lines and paved roads didn't make it out to Troublesome Creek for nearly a century, the blue recessive gene was passed down to generations of Fugates and neighboring families, all of whom came to be known as "the blue people of Kentucky.". Upon discovering the blue members of the Fugate family were perfectly healthy in every other way, Cawein decided to try some experiments to see if the blue color could be treated. 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. Population: 18,763Bars per capita: 6th in West VirginiaFishing/bait shops per capita: 4thMobile home parks per capita: 5th. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. The afflicted were embarrassed about their condition and adamant about talking to Cawein. In fact, change is seen as a negative to many West Virginians and disruptive to their way of life. He married Elizabeth Smith, who carried a recessive gene for a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, which gives those who have it blue-toned skin, even though they are otherwise perfectly healthy. 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. Theyre known simply as the blue people in the hills and hollows around Troublesome and Ball Creeks. Within a few minutes. The Informant learned this information from her brother, when he returned home after his first semester at school. The family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife. At last they were free of their "blue" shade and were no longer embarrassed. They were real, and they really were blue, thanks to a recessive genetic condition. He came from where the sun don't shine. The blue Fugates who did not wish to remain blue continued to take the pills, and contacted Dr. Cawein and other doctors to get more of them when needed. The good news for those who may still be born expressing the blue gene is that there is a treatment. Excise tax on bottled soft drinks, syrups and dry mixtures; disposition thereof. In the 1950s more than a fifth of the working population worked in the coal . When Eleanor Roosevelt visited West Virginia mining towns in the 1930s, national newspapers ran pictures of rundown shacks and barefoot kids in rags, which left a lasting impression of the state as a backwater. West Virginia had just one carrier in its exchange in 2015 - Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield - although the carrier only offered 12 plans in 2014, and bumped that up to 14 in 2015. 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. "The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky" And a sense that President . She shuns modern conveniences. She and her husband Alva have a strong sense of family. It was caused, Scott speculated, by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. More than a cent. His two room log cabin sits in the middle of Laurel Fork Hollow. Published. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! Blue Man Group will rock your world. Rednecks are hailed as being great in our song lyrics. Its nothing.. Note: In this instance the reason for cyanosis was not methemoglobinemia but Rh incompatibility. 702 ft (214 m) Time zone: UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) Summer : UTC-4 (EDT) GNIS ID: 1549599: Blue is an unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States. Cause, you know, rednecks like to hunt, drink, smoke and shoot things. He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith with a very pale complexion. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were "bright blue" according to Fugate family lore. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. Her lips were as dark as a bruise. Population: 9,277High school graduation rate 73%Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th. It was painful. THE town of Odd, West Virginia is a quiet, rural countryside, despite all the buzz surrounding the infamous inbred family, The Whittakers, who live within it. A new playing surface, FieldTurf Revolution 2.5, was installed in 2016, giving West Virginia one of the country's safest and most . Everyone knew the blue Fugates were healthy people. Chapter 1: The Climate of Post-War America Chapter 2: West Virginia - The Violent Heritage Chapter 3: Political Maneuvering Chapter 4: The Creative Act of 1919 Chapter 5: Getting Organized PART II Chapter 6: The Mine Wars, 1919-1929 Chapter 7: Depression and Recovery, 1929-1939 Chapter 8: War Service, 1939-1949 The condition that made the Fugates blue causes large amounts of methemoglobin (which is a blue type of hemoglobin) to circulate in the blood. Cawein packed his black bag and rounded up Nurse Pendergrass for the big event. Since there werent any roads or trains near their small community, the kidswere married off to the only people who lived nearby: their cousins. The area was never. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. Matt Harvey Dan Cunningham was born Jan. 16, 1850, in Jackson County. In another neighborhood of this rust-belt city of 46,000, Pam and Ted Keesee have their own. 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. Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. "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. Old color photographs of the family clearly show about half of the members to have a distinct cobalt blue skin color, while the other have regular white skin color. All he needed was a substance that could "donate" a free electron to the methemoglobin, allowing it to bond with oxygen. As a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes, intermarriage and inbreeding, members of the Fugate family were born with a rare condition that made them visibly discoloured. 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. 10 people didnt graduate from high school oxygenate correctly % Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th 4thMobile! 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