Florence C. Dudley

Florence Chisholm Dudley (1902 – 1962) was an American assistant in medical genetics. Eponymously remembered for her description of Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome in 1944

Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome (AHDS) is an X-linked condition characterized by severely impaired intellectual development, dysarthria, athetoid movements, muscle hypoplasia, and spastic paraplegia. There is large phenotypic interfamilial and intrafamilial variability. In severe cases, patients never gain the ability to walk or talk [OMIM 300523]

In 1944, William Allan (1881-1947), Claude Nash Herndon Jr. (1916-1998) and Florence Dudley described a kindred of 24 males affected by severe mental retardation spanning 6 generations. The patients had hypotonia at birth, but otherwise appeared normal. By 6 months, they developed an inability to hold up the head, leading to the family’s description of the patients as having a ‘limber-neck.’ Motor development was markedly reduced, few ever walked, and most had generalized muscular atrophy, joint contractures, and hyporeflexia as adults. At least 15 women of reproductive age or younger were potential heterozygotes

Biography

• Born October 23, 1902 in Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi
• 1916-1920 Hermanville High school
• BS, Bachelor of Science
• Assistant to the Charlotte Medical Library
• Assistant in Medical genetics at the Wake Forest College and Bowman Gray School of Medicine
• Research with the American Cancer Society of Human Genetics
• Died May, 20 1962 Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

Major Publications

• Allan W, Herndon CN, Dudley FC. Some examples of the inheritance of mental deficiency: apparently sex-linked idiocy and microcephaly. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1944; 48: 325-334.
• Dudley FC, Allan W. Mating customs in North Carolina. Journal of Heredity, 1942; 33(9): 331–332

References

• Florence Chisholm Dudley. Snips and Cuts; Charlotte High School 1920:20
• Florence C Dudley Bulletin of Wake Forest College. 1943
• Gray and White Matter. Florence Dudley Bowman Gray School of Medicine. 1945
• Florence Chisholm Dudley. The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), 21 May 1962