Family Farm

SALVISA - Sixteen-year-old Jordan Leigh has accomplished more in her short music career than most would hope for in an entire lifetime. From Nashville to New York City, she has done everything from play on the hallowed stage of the Grand Ole Opry to sit down for an interview on the CBS Early Show. A Kentucky native who lives in the scenic farmland just north of Harrodsburg, Leigh has had a passion for music since her earliest days. She began singing with the children's choir at her church, and after seeing a young girl play at a local concert, she begged her father to let her take voice lessons.

WASHINGTON - Time was, Riley Webster Lugar, a Hoosier farmer, vociferously disapproved of the New Deal policy of killing baby pigs to control supply in the hope of raising prices. When his son Marvin ran the family farm, if a cashier giving him change included a Franklin Roosevelt dime, he would slap the offending coin on the counter and denounce the New Deal policy of supporting commodity prices by controlling supply - by limiting the freedom to plant. Today, Marvin's son Dick is carrying on two family traditions - running the farm and resenting the remarkable continuity connecting today's farm policies with the New Deal's penchant for economic planning.

BUTCHERTOWN - David Swearingen, who served with Co. I, 8th Kentucky Cavalry, during the Civil War, is buried in a wooded area near where he lived in the Butchertown community in northern Casey County. However, few people except his family knew where their Civil War ancestor was laid to rest in 1875. The family cemetery has several graves of the Swearingen family, but only one tombstone marked the grave of Willie Maxey, one of David's grandsons. Now, 132 years after the tragic death of Swearingen on May 13, 1875, there is no doubt that he is buried on the side of a knob in the woods.

A lot of people were brought to Tuesday's Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Banquet under false pretenses ... but it was for a good cause, as they were honored by their friends, family and members of the community. Betty Simpson was named Citizen of the Year for her years of service to the community in a variety of areas. Dawne Carlson presented the award to a very surprised Simpson who admitted she came to the banquet to see her daughter and son-in-law. Simpson currently serves as President of the Harvey Helm Memorial Library Board of Directors and has worked with the Lincoln County Historical Society and the Crab Orchard Alumni, and has volunteered at Fort Logan Hospital, as well as countless other local organizations.

For 12 years, Joe and Sheila McCord have provided local people with fresh shrimp, raised on their family farm on Lexington Road in Clark County. But this Saturday, the McCords will open the shrimp season for the last time, citing a down economy and the uncertainty of the business. "For 12 years, we've barely broken even, and last year was really a disaster financially," Sheila said. In 2008, the McCords filled five ponds with fresh-water shrimp, feeding them twice a day, but Sheila said there is no way to know how the shrimp are faring until the ponds are drained on the day of the harvest.

LANCASTER - Donna Smith has to look away as her grandson flies down the dirt drag strip on his own motorcycle. She said she waits until the last second to watch as Colton Elkins, 7, nears the finish line. Over the years, she has seen this many times before, but she said she will never get used to her family's need for speed. "It's kind of an all in the family thing," she said, watching her daughter, Rhoda Elkins, and Colton get ready to race at the Garrard County Fair on Monday night.

  Scott named director of laboratory services Rick Scott has been named to the position of director of Laboratory Services at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center. Scott has been employed at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center since 1991. During his career at Ephraim McDowell he has served as a lab technician, lab facilitator and lab manager. He earned an associate’s degree and bachelor’s degree in medical technology from the University of Kentucky.

John Helm is 29 years old and a full-time farmer, working his family farm in western Boyle County. His grandfather bought the land in the 1930s, and Helm says he never wants to sell it. "Farming is all I ever want to do," he said. Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission heard Helm and more than a dozen other farmers, businessmen and residents, speak Wednesday about how much to weigh the value of the agriculture industry in a plan for the county's development during the next five years.

Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series in which the Journal looks at an outstanding senior from East and West Jessamine and the Providence School. The students profiled were selected by school administrators. West Jessamine senior Amanda Elliot leads a busy life, one full of activities that you don't often see paired up. She participates in pageants, but she also raises her own tobacco, hay and cattle on her family farm. She plays first base on her high school softball team, but she is a cheerleader too. And although she has lived in Wilmore her entire life, she will be leaving in the fall to study Chemistry at Georgetown College.

For more than two decades, Harkey and Cathy Edwards raised cattle and tobacco on their farm in Clark County. But a few years before the 2004 statewide tobacco buyout threatened to close small farms, the couple went a different direction. "With the onset of the quota buyout of tobacco, we were looking for an alternative crop that maybe could replace that cash crop," Cathy said. "So we started researching grapes. " Since then, the couple have planted 13 acres at Harkness Edwards Winery and Vineyards, five of which will be harvested this year.