Hughes, Irene (Finger)

Chicago psychic who attained fame in the 1960s with her predictions. Born Irene Finger in a log cabin at Saulsbury, Tennessee, Hughes claimed Cherokee Indian and Scotch-Irish ancestry. She worked in a hospital in New Orleans and married William Hughes in 1945. After the war she moved to Chicago and became a reporter. Hughes used her psychic abilities to pay for the move to Chicago by correctly forecasting horserace winners.

Following a major operation in 1961, Hughes became aware of a Japanese spirit guide. She became more intensely interested in psychic phenomena and went on to become a professional psychic reader. She wrote and lectured on psychic subjects and began offering private consultations. In 1963 she founded the Golden Path in Chicago, an organization devoted to teaching students to develop their psychic talents. In 1967 she visited the Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, North Carolina, where her psychic abilities were tested by parapsychologist William Roll.

Among her many psychic predictions was one concerning the assassination of Robert Kennedy. In 1962 she predicted the exact date of death of former Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson in 1965. Her growing reputation was enhanced in 1967 when some six months in advance she predicted the massive snowstorm to hit Chicago in January of that year. She filed other predictions with the Central Premonitions Registry.

During the 1970s Hughes emerged as one of the top psychics in the Chicago area. Several books by and about her appeared. She was a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows, and for several years she hosted a local television show on Chicago's WSNS. After a fruitful career, she retired from the public scene.

Sources:

Defano, M. M. The Living Prophets. New York: Dell, 1972.

Hughes, Irene. ESPecially Irene: A Guide to Psychic Awareness. Blauvelt, N.Y.: Rudolph Steiner Publications, 1972.

——. Know Your Future Today. New York: Paperback Library, 1970.

Psychic magazine, editors of. Psychics. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

Steiger, Brad. Irene Hughes on Psychic Safari. New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1972.