Silence fills the air.
Leaves continue their transformation to golden orange.
Cattle speckle the horizon, completing the pastoral vista called the Burkett farm.
The vista offers a dream sequence — and that fits Barry Burkett’s life perfectly.
“It’s the most beautiful place in the world,” he says, and he knows “the world.”
Barry, a Somerset native, now 65, held a lifelong dream to farm and practice medicine in Somerset. But he didn’t start living that dream until 2003.
“I found a way to do it,” he says.
And a roundabout trip it was:
“The watershed of my life was enlisting into the Navy,” said Barry. “Before that, I was going nowhere.”
That decision in 1966 allowed him to travel throughout the world: Bermuda, Newfoundland, Columbia, Australia, the Philippines and more.
“Another watershed in my life was meeting my wife (Susan) of 40 years in 1970,” says Barry.
They raised three children and moved throughout the United States as many military families do.
But going back to Pulaski County always remained on Barry’s mind. He grew up on a farm outside Somerset, in Nancy.
And in 1997, he bought part of the original farm that his grandfather purchased in 1907. The demand for his work as an endodontist, a root canal specialist, helped make that possible. Lake Cumberland Endodontics is a modern dental facility, the only such practice in Somerset, Ky.
“After ‘9-11,’ I knew it was time for me to come back home,” says Barry. “This was the farm I came back to. I couldn’t have done this with out being an endodontist. And I want to keep on working. I am not yet ready to hang it up. I still have a lot to give. I’ve saved the best for last.”
So, Barry got the second chance that eludes many in life.
“Someone once told me I was optimistic,” he says.
