POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

I came across an link to an item in the Forsyth County News in Alabama, and the string of adverb phrases in the headline caught my attention: “University of Alabama Searching for Family of Owner of Radio Struck by Meteorite.”

The Alabama Museum of Natural History is located on the University of Alabama campus, and one of the items in the collection is a radio from the home of Eugene Hewlitt Hodges and his wife Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges. In 1954, the radio was struck by a meteorite that came through the roof of the Hodges’ apartment, struck the radio, and ricocheted into Ann Hodges’ side, leaving a large, dark bruise.

The meteorite became known as the Sylacauga meteorite, and Ann Hodges has somewhat more than her 15-minutes of fame as the only human being known to have been struck by a meteorite. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine and the television show, I’ve Got a Secret, and the national news media followed the court case when the Hodges’ landlord laid claim, unsuccessfully to ownership of the meteorite.

After winning the court case, the Hodges sold the meteorite to the Alabama Natural History Museum, but an audit of the museum’s holdings revealed that the radio struck by the meteorite, which was also on display, was actually loaned to the museum in 2005 by Eugene Hewlitt Hodges, who passed away in 2012 after moving to Georgia.

The Hodges had divorced several years after Ann had been struck by the meteorite, and local newspaper stories from the period indicate that though the divorce was relatively amicable, her sudden celebrity had created friction.

In any case, the University of Alabama has sent letters to all known addresses for Eugene Hewlitt Hodges’ blood relations, and all of the letters have been returned, stamped “Addressee Unknown.” So, the university has posted items in several newspapers in a last-ditch effort to locate someone related to Hodges. The intention is to ask any heir to consider donating the radio to the museum, but if no heir can be located, the museum will have no liability in keeping it as part of its collection.

Courtesy of Alabama Museum of Natural History

The full article in the Forsyth County News is available at: forsythnews.com/local/university-alabama-searching-family-owner-radio-struck-meteorite.