The Only Person in Recorded History to Be Struck by a Meteorite and Survive

On November 30, 1954, the locals of Sylacauga, Alabama reported a bright streak in the sky. During the 1950s, the fear of a nuclear holocaust was very real, so the unusual sight prompted residents to immediately call 911.

The first thought that came to mind was a nuclear attack, a UFO, or a plane crash.

Ann Hodges, 34 at the time, did not witness the glowing object as she was inside her rental home, lying under a blanket, and taking a nap.

Ann’s mother, who was in another room of the home, ran into the living room when Ann began screaming. All they knew at the time was that something had struck Ann on the hip.

They looked around and saw a large rock but were baffled as to how it got there.

Word Spreads

Word quickly spread throughout the small town and it wasn’t long before the house was surrounded by curious on-lookers. A doctor and the police were called to the home to tend to Ann’s injuries and investigate the incident.

It was the police chief and Mayor, Ed Howard, who noticed the hole in the ceiling of the home. Ann’s husband, Eugene, arrived home from work to find his yard full of people who explained to him what happened.

Ann refused to go to the hospital on the day of the incident. She had a bruise the size of a grapefruit taking shape on her hip where the meteorite had struck her, but her injuries weren’t life-threatening.

She wasn’t able to sleep that night, however, and went to the hospital the next day.

The fact that the meteorite did not strike Ann directly, but ricocheted off of a stand-up radio, coupled with her being covered in a thick blanket is probably what saved her life.

The Meteorite

It is believed that the meteorite broke off of the 1685 Toro Asteroid, which has been deemed by NASA as a “Near-Earth Asteroid”. At that time, it was approximately the size of Manhattan.

The meteorite, now known as the “Hodges Meteorite” weighed 8.5 pounds and is estimated to be approximately 4.5 billion years old. It was classified as a chondrite or stony meteorite and is mostly composed of iron and nickel.

Once the fragment entered Earth’s atmosphere, it broke apart. One piece went through the Hodges’ home while another landed a few miles away on a farm.

That piece was discovered by a farmer, Julius Kempis McKinney while driving a mule-drawn wagon. He sold the fragment and made enough money to buy a new house and a new car.

The Hits Keep on Coming

Initially, the Air Force confiscated the meteorite to confirm its origin but turned it back over to Ann. However, the Hodges then found themselves being struck with a legal suit over the rightful owner of the space rock.

The landlady of the residence, Birdie Guy, believed that she should be given the meteorite because she owned the house that it struck.

Ann replied with her thoughts on the matter,

“Suing is the only way she’ll ever get it. I think God intended it for me. After all, it hit me!”

After a year of litigation, Guy settled the case for $500, enough money to repair the roof of the home. However, after the house caught fire it was demolished to allow a mobile home park to be put in its place.

Small-Town Girl Gets Her 15 Minutes

Ann Hodges became an instant celebrity. She began being bombarded with fan mail from children, churches, and those working in education, asking about the meteorite. Her home and town were constantly visited by reporters. Her phone rang non-stop, at all hours of the night.

Ann was a very private person and did not really care for the attention she was receiving.

Ann did agree to partake in several photo shoots and even accepted an invitation to travel to New York to be a guest on Garry Moore’s show “I’ve Got a Secret”. There, the panel had to guess why she is a notable figure, her profession, or what happened to her.

Not All Endings are Happy

Not long after the incident, Ann returned to the hospital to be treated for what her husband deemed “a nervous breakdown”. Eugene felt that the doctor was over-medicating Ann and her condition wasn’t improving.

Eugene admitted to fighting with the doctor, who he accused of “doping up” his wife. The doctor was instructed not to return to Ann’s room, which the hospital complied with.

By the time Ann got the meteorite back after the legal proceedings, she was so sick of all of the attention and hullabaloo surrounding it that she just wanted to get rid of it. She donated the incredible piece of history to the Alabama Museum of Natural History.

She said,

“You can have it.”

All she wanted in return was enough money to cover the legal fees that she had incurred while trying to keep the space rock. That and to go back to her normal life.

That wouldn’t play out exactly as she wanted, however. The stress from the incident caused issues in her marriage. She wanted to forget the whole thing ever happened, but her husband Eugene wanted to sell the meteorite, even though he couldn’t find a buyer who would pay what he wanted to sell it for.

Eugene claims that Ann was addicted to prescription drugs after her stay in the hospital, which led her to run off with a contractor that was remodeling their home.

Either way, it seems that the meteorite was at least indirectly responsible for the Hodges’ divorce in 1964.

Only eight years later, in 1972, Ann passed away in a nursing home of kidney failure at only 52 years old.

***Story previously posted by author on Medium.com***