# What state were the Beverly Hillbillies originally from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953 "2004-08-15T16:09:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/81 "2017-07-03T00:25:35Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > This is probably as good a place as any to point out that the Clampetts were bought out by the “ **OK Oil Company** ” before they moved. And Mr. Brewster that inked the deal with Jed lived in Tulsa. ---
**Author:** ![BuckChongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@BuckChongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckChongo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/82 "2017-07-03T00:27:56Z")
They claimed Texas roots a couple of times, the oak/pine/hickory forest of the Southeastern states occupies a large part of deep East Texas, where you would also have found hills, a subspecies of Hillbilly, and a fair amount of oil. Their speech mannerisms, however, had nothing to do with Texas, especially deep East Texas back in the day when the slow cadence of speaking was greatly exaggerated by mangled pronunciation accompanied by a maddening elision in the middle of most sentences. Interestingly, this is the speech pattern W Bush used for his fake Texas accent. Jed’s (no not Jeb’s) favorite exclamation of “Weee Doggies” puts me in mind of the sort of polite as marshmallows cursing one might hear from a Tennessee gentlemen when the ladies are around. Check out No Time For Sergeants by Mac Hyman and also Andy Griffith’s portrayal of Will Stockdale in the movie version to see where all the hillbilly silliness came from. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/83 "2017-07-03T02:19:43Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > I’m certain that I remember Jed telling Ellie Mae “Yer granny ain’t really yer granny.” I’m confused. If she’s Jed’s mother-in-law, how could she not be Elly May’s granny? Did Jed or his late wife have a fling on the side? :dubious: 😕 As an aside here, Uncle Fester in _ **The Addams Family** _ was Morticia’s uncle, not Gomez’s brother, as was claimed in the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/84 "2017-07-03T02:20:39Z")
I agree that Granny’s last name was Moses, (or was that her maiden name?) Though given the way cousins marry in those parts, it’s not that implausible that Jed’s mother-in-law could have the same surname. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/85 "2017-07-03T03:03:02Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m confused. If she’s Jed’s mother-in-law, how could she not be Elly May’s granny? Did Jed or his late wife have a fling on the side? :dubious: 😕 > > As an aside here, Uncle Fester in _ **The Addams Family** _ was Morticia’s uncle, not Gomez’s brother, as was claimed in the movies. Gomez did have a brother, Pancho, though he didn’t appear in the series. He was in the 1977 TV movie [Halloween With the New Addams Family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_with_the_New_Addams_Family), played by Henry Darrow. Almost all of the original cast members except for Blossom Rock returned for the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/86 "2017-07-03T04:07:07Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m confused. If she’s Jed’s mother-in-law, how could she not be Elly May’s granny? Did Jed or his late wife have a fling on the side? :dubious: 😕 It’s possible that the scene I’m remembering involved Jed and Jethro but that doesn’t really make sense either because Jethro would have known that his uncle’s MIL was not his grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/87 "2017-07-03T05:18:05Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > This is probably as good a place as any to point out that the Clampetts were bought out by the “ **OK Oil Company** ” before they moved. > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > And Mr. Brewster that inked the deal with Jed lived in Tulsa. That just shows there were oil companies in Oklahoma that would have gone in and done the deal since there probably weren’t any in Arkansas. Where my mother’s family was, it was only 35 miles from the Oklahoma state line. One great-uncle even went off to work the oil fields around Tulsa. No, the Clampetts were not in Oklahoma, but the company buying their oil was. No one at the time seriously entertained any notion that the Clampetts were from Oklahoma or Texas. The mere suggestion simply boggles the mind. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/88 "2017-07-03T06:54:02Z")
I’ve never in my life heard of anyone in or from Oklahoma or Texas being referred to as a “mountaineer” either, poor or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/89 "2017-07-03T08:20:15Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Jethro would have known that his uncle’s MIL was not his grandmother. Maybe she was Pearl’s grandma or MIL too? 😕 I wonder if anyone connected with the show ever sat down and drew out a Clampett/Bodine/Moses/Bradley family tree… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/90 "2017-07-03T09:07:31Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > It’s possible that the scene I’m remembering involved Jed and Jethro but that doesn’t really make sense either because Jethro would have known that his uncle’s MIL was not his grandmother. Then again, this is _Jethro_ we’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/91 "2017-07-03T10:47:21Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > This is probably as good a place as any to point out that the Clampetts were bought out by the “ **OK Oil Company** ” before they moved. In 1962 when the show started the abbreviation for Oklahoma was Okla. not OK. Two letter abbreviations were adopted the next year. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/92 "2017-07-03T11:14:15Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > In 1962 when the show started the abbreviation for Oklahoma was Okla. not OK. Two letter abbreviations were adopted the next year. Oklahoma as “OK” predates a zip code introduction. Start with the lyrics to the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/93 "2017-07-03T11:27:58Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > In 1962 when the show started the abbreviation for Oklahoma was Okla. not OK. Two letter abbreviations were adopted the next year. Before 1962, people used all kinds of abbreviations. The postal service used a lot of pre-existing abbreviations. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/94 "2017-07-04T05:51:20Z")
It doesn’t matter what the abbreviation for Oklahoma was, because the Clampetts were not there. Is there some sort of law that says an oil strike in a state must be processed by a company inside the same state? And as was mentioned earlier, there were never any mountaineers in Oklahoma, and for one very good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/95 "2017-07-04T09:59:52Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It doesn’t matter what the abbreviation for Oklahoma was, because the Clampetts were not there. Is there some sort of law that says an oil strike in a state must be processed by a company inside the same state? > > And as was mentioned earlier, there were never any mountaineers in Oklahoma, and for one very good reason. [Eastern Oklahoma State Mountaineers](https://www.eosc.edu/athletics.aspx). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/96 "2017-07-04T10:28:45Z")
If you look at a map, you’ll see that Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee come together at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It’s my guess the Hillbillies came from here, within a radius of 100 miles or so. This would definitely place them in an area of interest to the OK Oil Co. > **[Border states (American Civil War)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_states_(American_Civil_War))** > > In the context of the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states were slave states that did not secede from the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia. To their north they bordered free states of the Union and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the Confederacy to their south. > Of the 34 U.S. states in 1861, nineteen were free states and fifteen were slave including the four border states; each of the latter held a co... ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/97 "2017-07-04T10:36:48Z")
The very eastern edge of Oklahoma does cut into the Ozarks. I’ve been there. Very green. But I agree the Clampetts were not Sooners. I think I assumed they were from the southern end of Missouri, because that’s where I’m from. But I appreciate that they’re meant to be from a sort of vague “up in the hills” that could be recognizable to viewers in multiple states, rather than being firmly set in one particular place. > [@terentii](#): > > Wherever they lived, it had very cold winters. One of the reasons Pearl gave for moving to “Californy” was that Granny kept slipping on the ice in the winter. > > It also had to be a state that was part of the Confederacy, since they waved a Confederate flag on more than one occasion. (On the other hand, it could also have been a border state that had Confederate sympathizers. This would include Missouri, Kentucky, and West Virginia.) You don’t need very cold winters to get ice. Little Rock is subtropical, but still gets ice storms. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/98 "2017-07-04T10:42:00Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > TYou don’t need very cold winters to get ice. Little Rock is subtropical, but still gets ice storms. Bad enough to make you want to move to California? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/99 "2017-07-04T11:03:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Bad enough to make you want to move to California? Yes, I don’t know about Little Rock but it gets really cold in the Ozarks during the winter. Part of my family lives in Northwestern Arkansas and it isn’t uncommon for it to be colder there during the winter than it is for me in New England. One of the coldest nights I have ever spent was in Fayetteville, AR when it was -12F. The seasonal temperature swings are wild in that part of the country as you can see here: [http://www.intellicast.com/local/history.aspx?location=USAR0189](http://www.intellicast.com/local/history.aspx?location=USAR0189) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953/100 "2017-07-04T12:24:54Z")
I really doubt the kinfolk would have said “Jed, move away from here!”. I would expect most of them to say “Rich Uncle Jed, y’all know y’all always been mah favorite kin, right?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-state-were-the-beverly-hillbillies-originally-from/259953.md?page=6)