Berea, Kentucky

In 1988 when the State General Assembly designating Berea as “The folk arts and crafts capital of the Commonwealth of Kentucky”, the college and community had already been supporting Appalachian culture, art and traditions for over 125 years. When teachers from Breathitt, Clay, Hancock and Morgan Counties set out to tell the story of this […]

When first setting foot inside Purdy’s Coffee Company, a visitor is overwhelmed by the scent of fresh coffee. But gratification will have to wait. People stand in line to get a cup of Purdy's. Just like Starbucks, but more homey, more genuinely friendly. This is a family business, owned and operated by Robert and Kristin […]

Five days of life and landscapes in Berea and surrounding Madison County, Ky, in 3,790 frames.

When Cathy Currier was 12 years old, she hurried to her parents’ music store every day after school, armed with a Coke and a candy bar. Now, almost 48 years later, Cathy still hurries around the business in its current location at 136 West Main St. in Richmond. While dashing from a guitar repair to […]

Shelby Tucker and her family traded a Massachusetts apartment for a small Kentucky farm with dozens of animals, and they love the life they’ve made.

Mental illness is not what Jesse Toms would have chosen as the challenge he’d face in life. The same can be said for Abbie, Lucy, Margaret and the other patients who find help at the Friends and Family Adult Day Health Care in Berea. The Friends and Family center is more than just a certified […]

The McLain Family Band once toured the world. Family obligations interrupted the globe-trotting but didn’t stop the music.

“Make yourself at home,” says Jane Post. “Do you want a cheese sandwich?” Tim Hensley asks. This gracious and generous couple, Tim, 48, and Jane, 57, are trying to contribute to life in Madison County by sharing what they love: mushrooms and nature. Their mushroom emporium, Forest Retreats, started with an idea and a few […]

For Ellen Staples, handling horses is the easy part of her work. The higher hurdle is proving herself to other people.

Like many teenagers fresh out of high school, Brandon Byung-Ho lacked direction and a practical plan for his future. Then one night as his mother, Heather Taylor, walked home from the market, she was hit and killed by a reckless driver. In an instant, Brandon’s world was turned upside down. He moved into his mother’s […]

Fred Baker found a job that gives him a chance to share his blessings with everyone he greets.

Reminders both tangible and intangible surround Dawna Gilliam, marking the most frightening experience in her life. Dawna, 46, was diagnosed with breast cancer June 20, 2012, and 34 days later, she had a double mastectomy. The skin on her chest bears deep scars, and bracelets adorned with positive words push her forward. She cherishes everyday […]

Katie Okumu lives with her 93-year-old great-grandmother. What will happen to her, she wonders, if time takes the only adult the 15-year-old has left?

“I use little kids’ books in sermons. Kids’ books aren’t always just for little kids,” says Carla Gilbert, and that sums up this unique 76-year-old woman who serves the sick and injured as chaplain at Saint Joseph Berea hospital. Long ago, while attending the University of Colorado Boulder as a medical researcher, Carla became involved […]

Charity can feed the body and the soul. At God’s Outreach Food Bank in Richmond, Jamie Holloway finds food, friendship, and faith.

Six miles outside Berea, past a small stream at the end of a long, overgrown, gravel driveway, a small farmhouse sits surrounded by a garden of lettuce, peppers and herbs. In the early hours of a chilly morning Liam Wilson builds a fire by candlelight and prepares breakfast for himself and his wife, Valentina. The […]

Harold Harris farmed the same land for 62 years. It’s all he ever wanted to do. At 89, he’s had to turn the job over to his son—and he misses his labor of love.

Brent Muncy has many roles in life: father, farmer, mechanic, musician. But to the agricultural mechanics students of Madison Southern High School, the most important role he plays is that of teacher. That once-in-a-lifetime teacher. The kind of teacher who changes the trajectory of his students’ lives. Students gravitate to Brent, pulled in by a […]

Pat Banks is deeply devoted to the health of Kentucky River. She cares—and she wants you to care, too.

As it does many weekends, the Mullins family of Berea loads camera bags, clothes and camping gear into its car. This time the destination is Kayford Mountain, West Va., where Nick Mullins will speak out against mountaintop removal. The summer before, the family traveled the eastern United States speaking out against the practice. Until a […]

The affection that photographer Warren Brunner has for his subjects is as crucial to his body of work as his skill with the camera.

Finding God at a young age was a beautiful thing for 60-year-old author and homesteader, Debbonnaire Kovacs. It taught her reconciliation, forgiveness, and the sacred art of living. With God’s abundant love and grace, Debbonnaire learned how to heal all the breaches in her life and also the breaches in others’ lives. “Because my breaches […]

Shy Ty Allen is finally breaking out of his shell at 14 – and he owes it all to chickens.

Doodlebug baked another cake. It’s how Madison Southern High School senior Meghan Smith showed her creative side, mixed it with baking and turned herself into a small-business woman running her bakery called Doodlebug Cakes. Meghan, 17, has become so successful she’s been able to buy a Toyota Corolla and pay for car insurance and a […]

Boxing instructor Emmitt Igo believes that the challenges and discipline of his sport teach young people how strong they can truly be—in body and spirit, in the ring and in life—and he’s not giving up.

A love for each other and a love for people influence so many aspects of Neil and Mary Colmer’s work at the Weaver’s Bottom Craft Studio. They met at a local dance in 1969, and Mary said she felt something special when Neil touched her hand. But it wasn’t until seven years later that Neil, […]

Sandy Kavanaugh’s motherly instinct has yielded a full nest. Who wouldn’t crow about that?

“I got really good at being a butterfly,” Linda Williams says. Then she flutters around her classroom at Berea Community High School explaining complex algebraic equations and responding to students’ brow-rubbing frustration. “I really care about my kids,” Linda says as her glasses rest on her full-smile cheeks. With a school day starting at 8:20 […]

Dan Klinefelter relishes a life of adventure. But his father’s illness calls him to a quieter everyday responsibility he willingly accepts.

For Fred and Suzanna Gonzales and their three children, home is a two-story apartment in Berea College’s Ecovillage. This is the third time Fred and Suzanna, who met and married as undergraduates at Berea College, have lived in the eco-conscious development. The couple’s two daughters, Isabella, 9, and Ophellia, 5, and their son, Stellan, 1, […]

Doctors gave him no chance, but the fierce determination of his grandparents has carried 18-year-old Dakota Carpenter through a lifetime of love.

“We really enjoy how all this literature, all this information surrounding us is just a huge treasure we get to share with people,” says Joe Wilkie, co-owner of Robie Books in Berea. Robie Books was started 12 years ago by Berea local Harry Robie, who was interested in being a purveyor of fine and collectible […]

Glass artist Jimmy Lou Jackson creates for the ages. Her beads and her self-penned obituary define her legacy.

Wanpen Cline arrives at the restaurant ready to start her work day. Her last shift ended just four hours ago, at 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t an unusually long day. She does this seven days a week. Nobody makes her. It’s her restaurant. Wanpen Thai & Chinese Restaurant was her dream since she discovered a love […]

Through his music, Sam Gleaves honors Appalachian culture and inspires social change.

As we move more into the 21st century, technology keeps progressing. Most people get the majority of their information from the internet, smart phones and tablets. For many parts of America, bookstores and even libraries are becoming things of the past, but for parts of rural America the public library and even the good old […]

John Holbrook grew up poor. Now, he shares his rich spirit wherever he goes.

The sun has yet to rise when Abby Adams wakes in order to help her son, Gauge Golji, 6, get up and dress for school. Before Gauge boards the 7 a.m. school bus that will take him to Berea Community Elementary School, Abby tells him, “Give me my three.” Gauge obliges with three kisses before […]

Richmond’s Ron Coffman has packed several lifetimes into his 81 years. His photos document his service to country, community and family.

The smell of manure fills the air, clinging to anything that will hold it. Sunlight slowly reaches back across 150 acres of grazing land. The rhythmic crunching of gravel beneath a pair of boots creates a stir in the pasture. Dairy cows begin to fuss. The sun is up at York’s Dairy, one of only […]

Eli and Isaac Deaver spend their mornings exploring the meadow and the creek by their house. When they see a bird they don’t recognize, they rush inside to look it up in a book. Nature is the foundation of their education – unstructured learning through the exploration of life, supplemented with home schooling with their […]

The side door of Montgomery Farm & Garden opens and a chorus of jubilant voices greet the newest addition to the morning gathering. “Hello Shorty,” Bennie Gay, 68, announces as Boyd Van Winkle, 83, takes a seat amongst the group of five men assembled around the wood-burning stove. Both Bennie and Shorty, along with the […]

Leah Rees started producing art at a young age. She recalls a childhood moment when her mother asked what she wanted to be later in life, and Leah simply replied, “A painter.” Leah earned a degree in architecture at the University of Kentucky. Halfway through her education, she decided she no longer wanted to become […]

Eddie Kennedy strides across the grass, fall leaves crunching underfoot. He treads the same path daily to Berea Arena Theater, preparing for opening night of his newest show, a parody called “We Got Talent” inspired by the TV show “America’s Got Talent.” “It’s the best of the best, and the best of the other,” he […]

Linda Leforce has moved around a lot in her life. “This is the most settled I’ve ever felt,” she says of living in Berea. “This place feels like home.” It has been her favorite town so far, even though things have not been easy lately. Linda married young, had a job and two daughters, both […]

By 8 a.m., the regulars at Tussey’s Round Hill General Store are deep in town gossip. Though ready to wind down, Doug and Susie Tussey refuse to cut the hours at the Kirksville community store. They know the unassuming characters who use Tussey’s for a social hub. As the older generation ages and members of […]

Autumn leaves rustle in the wind and settle among the pumpkins spread across the ground as Margery Baldwin walks through Baldwin Farms. Home, farm and business, the enterprise is the brainchild of Margery and Tryon “Ty” Baldwin, who acquired the property near Richmond 37 years ago. Margery and Ty ran it together for many years […]

In 1953, Carl Carpenter signed on for a two-week hitch tending the Berea College campus grounds. Clearly a stickler for follow-through, Carl is still on the job — six decades and four college presidents later. “It’s been a long two weeks,” says Carl, 88. His reign has weathered many changes as new buildings went up […]

With the smell of pancakes in the air, 4-year-old Aidyn Maynard becomes very excited. Dancing around the kitchen with her mother, Alvina, to the song “Days Go By” by Keith Urban, Aidyn is grinning ear to ear. Alvina also has a grin on her face, although she has been dealing with the absence of her […]

Tucked away on a winding rural road in mountainous Madison County, Blizzard Hill Farm is a rich, fertile ground where fruits, vegetables and a few animals thrive and grow, but the most important thing being raised on the farm is the Walden family. After spending years in Augusta, Ga., and beginning their family there, Mark, […]

Since his youth in Puerto Rico, Chris Deleon was told about the origins of his name. “You’re a Deleon, which means you come from a lion,” he remembers his father telling him when he was 7. “Whenever you’re in a hard moment, dig down and remind yourself that you’re a Deleon.” Chris was offered an […]

Pat King carries over the next piece of wood, and her husband, Ken, waits, chainsaw in hand. He cuts the log into two or three pieces and adds them to the hundreds stacked in the yard. They’ll use them in the old-fashioned fireplace that serves as the only heat source in their country home on […]

From the road, the simple, white, frame building that houses Teresa’s Antiques and Gallery in Berea has a worn and weathered look. Step inside to a cluttered world of collectible dolls, antique furniture, mirrors, stacks of magazines and books, racks of clothes, posters and artwork. It’s the world of Philip and Fanny Harrison. He’s 95, […]

Officer Bill Eckler, the resource officer at Madison Southern High School, is more than just an enforcer. He’s a mentor. “It’s heart warming to get to be a small part of their lives,” Bill says, “or I hope to be anyway.” He greets students and faculty at Madison Southern High School each day with a […]

“Let’s do it again from the top,” a voice yells over the high schoolers, arranged in lines, their musical instruments glinting in the afternoon sun. First chair trumpet, Jacob Whitt, a sophomore at Madison Central High School raises his silver horn, purses his lips and repositions his feet to begin the routine again, nearing the […]

Sarah Culbreth has been in the pottery business for more than 40 years. She and her husband, Jeff Enge, have produced clay items including vases, bowls, mugs, luminaries and their famous spoon-bread bakers. They can create anything with their hands. As the years progressed, their son, David Enge, joined the team and has created his […]

Waco Food Mart is like your grandmother’s kitchen. A small television is on, folks gather close at the tightly packed tables and the smell of comfort food fills the air. Two hundred fifty-nine people rate their burger the very best in America. Rebecca Boswer, 31, says, “The burger has real flavor.” Also, nobody wants to […]

As he drives through the winding roads of rural Madison County, John Todd gestures to the passing dairy farms and rattles off the names of current and past family members who have lived here: brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles. As the car glides through the hills and “hollers,” the 84-year-old handles the curves with ease, conjuring […]

Josh Collier is 14, going on 30. “We call him our ‘old soul’ because his interests don’t exactly fit his age,” says Josh’s mom, DeLee Collier. Josh loves antique shopping, collecting historical trinkets, gardening, crafting and, most of all, caring for his chickens. As a fifth grader, Josh began raising chickens after his mom and […]

As a girl, Alena Watts was a dancer and won awards in national championships for acrobatics and tumbling. It was great experience that she later wanted her three daughters to enjoy. When the owner of the girls’ dance studio in Richmond no longer wanted to run the business, Alena, 40, reluctantly took over. “I didn’t […]

“FALL GARDEN” Seedlings wet behind the ears, Others old and tough for their years, twine around one another on airy trellises And produce nectar for the collector. Pruned and unpruned alike, Given favorable space and light, grow into many-hued personas –Unlike the catalogue descriptions. Tough-nuts-to-crack, companion planted With wilted rose buds, cross pollinate And yield […]

Dr. Bryan Fraley slides the switch on a Dremel tool and sands the exterior of a horse’s hoof afflicted with a fungal infection. The high-pitched whine of the motor doesn’t bother the horse, which had been injected with a sedative. The importance of a horse’s hooves drew Bryan, a veterinarian, to specialize in equine podiatry. […]

Faith, family and helping others are the three components that keep Marcia “Nikki” McHenry grounded. Bible verses, family photos and awards adorn the walls of her three-bedroom house. Nikki, 33, of Berea, is a learning- and behavior-disabilities paraeducator at Berea Community Middle/High School. She helps kids with learning disabilities, including ADHD, developmental delays and emotional […]

Friday, 7 a.m., Elliott Smith, 5, runs through the kitchen shouting about a video game. “There’s a character in this game named Carter,” says Elliott to his older brother, also named Carter. “He’s the . . . toughest!” Although quiet in demeanor, Carter Smith stands 6 feet tall. With a 32-inch vertical and 220-pound bench […]