Deep Roots

Horses peek out of a barn's windows on a farm on Kentucky 78 in Lincoln County.

Kelli Lopez, right, checks for rain while holding Chandler, her Pomerianian, in windy weather. Her twin daughters Mackaylen, from right, and Mackenzie, 8, ride bicycles with their friend, Cole Henderson, 6, outside their Danville home.

Mike Welch is seen through the propane stove he uses to heat and melt metal. The metal reaches almost 2000 degrees in order for Welch to bend it more easily

Carroll Purdom reflects on his words while sitting on his porch in Gravel Switch. His present house, which was built in 1948, is in the same location as the home in which he was born.

Carroll Purdom, 76, leans on a tombstone at the Purdom Cemetery, where his great-grandfather is buried. Purdom's great-grandfather, L.B. Purdom, who was shot while rididng on his horse to a basketball game, was buried in the cemetery. An aunt said it was a case of mistaken identity

Doris Purdom adjust one of the family photos on the wall in the upstairs spare bedroom on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007

Carroll enjoys his lunch of a hamburger and coffee at a Gravel Switch gas station on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007. According to his wife, Doris, Carroll always prefers a hot meal over a cold sandwich.

Carroll Purdom watches a little television as his wife, Doris, sets the breakfast table in their Gravel Switch, Ky., home on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007.

Carroll Purdom talks with his wife, Doris, about the height of the tobacco in their barn where the crop is drying. Carroll said he planted five acres this year, but Doris thinks he planted a little more. "Every year he seems to make an extra edge around the plot," she said.

Doris and Carroll Purdom pray before their breakfast after his return from driving the school bus. Breakfast and dinner are two times of the day when they make sure to sit down and be together

Carroll Purdom drops off middle-school students while driving a Casey County school bus. It's a job he hopes to do for just one more year. "I'm too old, and these kids, well, it's different from when I was growing up," said Purdom

"God gave me an unusual talent: a good ear and perfect pitch," said Mary Louise "Tweedie" Minor, a resident of McDowell Place of Danville in Danville, Ky. , on Thursday. Tweedie, 95, is known in the residential home for her piano playing.

Tweedie, 95, enjoys one of her five smokes a day on a back patio of McDowell Place in Danville, Ky., with fellow resident and musician Marty Will, 91, on Friday, Oct. 19, 2007. "I don't inhale now, and I can quit any time," Tweedie said of her smoking habit.

Tweedie relaxes while watching an "I Love Lucy" episode before lunch on Saturday. "I'm just tired after breakfast and a little after lunch, but after dinner I feel like I could dance all night!" she said, concluding with her trademark laugh.

After eating dinner at the resident center, Tweedie plays from memory using the "Golden Oldies" list she made years ago.

Tweedie is thanked by one of the residents after she finished playing. "I always like making people smile," said the 95-year-old musician, citing her early childhood days of belonging to a Pollyanna club with her friends as perhaps seeding her desire to bring joy to others.

Carroll and Doris Purdom, both 76, have lived off of Ky 234 most of their lives. Carroll's mother, and he, were born in homes on the Kentucky road in Casey County