Ben Alice Purdom
1924-2012
HARRODSBURG — Ben Alice Taylor Purdom of Harrodsburg, Ky., widow of Edgar Norvell Purdom, died Aug. 28, 2012, at Kingsbrook LifeCare Center in Ashland, Ky., after a long illness.
Born June 2, 1924, in Trinity, Texas, she was a daughter of the late Benjamin Earl Taylor and Elizabeth Olive Bayne Taylor, of Huntsville, Texas.
She was valedictorian of her class at Huntsville High School and Sam Houston University, where she was president of the student body and received the Pennebaker Award for study at Pueblo University in Pueblo, Mexico. She was active in many Harrodsburg civic organizations and was an active member of the Harrodsburg United Methodist Church, where she sang in the choir for more than 50 years, taught a Sunday School class for many years and served on the administrative board.
Following her retirement from the Farmers Home Administration of the United States Department of Agriculture, she worked as a volunteer in the genealogy records library of the Harrodsburg Historical Society, traveled extensively abroad, attended many educational seminars of Elderhostel International Inc., and worked actively to secure passage of legislation for permanent funding of the Mercer County Public Library.
