Irene Hughes

Irene Hughes (c. 1920 – December 7, 2012) was an American psychic residing in Crete, Illinois.

She was a favorite guest on The Merv Griffin Show. She also made regular appearances on Regis Philbin's Saturday Night in St. Louis and A.M. Los Angeles. Her waiting-list clients included Eva Gabor and Howard Hughes.

Roger Ebert profiled Hughes in the Chicago Sun-Times edition of Feb. 9, 1967, an article that continues to be available on his website (RogerEbert.com). Ebert pointed out how Hughes's fame had grown after correctly forecasting a January 1967 blizzard that had paralyzed the Chicago region.

Hughes, in the interview with Ebert, predicted that Lyndon B. Johnson would not seek re-election as President, and furthermore that "the Democrats will come right to the brink of nominating Robert Kennedy but then switch to someone else." This was said more than a year before LBJ announced on March 31, 1968 that he would not seek a second term. Bobby Kennedy, then the likely Democrats' nominee, would be assassinated on June 6, 1968.

Born and raised on a Tennessee farm, Hughes settled in Chicago Heights, Illinois with her husband, a Ford Motor Company accountant, and became a professional psychic in 1959. Often compared to astrologer Jeane Dixon during their careers, Hughes told Ebert, "I consider her to be a great woman...but, well, I have been more accurate."

Hughes was a popular guest on countless Chicago radio and television programs. She died at age 92 at a nursing facility in Beecher, Illinois.