Features

When Cassandra “Cassie” Hornback was a little girl, she enjoyed “exploring” her backyard in Sonora with her grandmother.
Her “Mammaw,” Norma Jean Rector, passed away last October and Hornback had the chance to go through some of her possessions. She was amazed at the treasures her Mammaw had saved from their adventures.
The odd-shaped rocks and fossils that caught the eye of a little girl were a foreshadowing of Hornback’s current love: geology.

For Eli Whitlock, a cancer diagnosis led him to one of the healthiest times in his life.
The 25-year-old Magnolia resident lost more than 100 pounds after deciding to change his lifestyle after receiving a cancer diagnosis four years ago.
Whitlock was diagnosed with testicular cancer in the summer of 2008 and had surgery days after learning of the disease. He didn’t need any other treatment to become cancer-free and he felt he “got off pretty lucky with that,” he said.

 When Hazel Denham walked into a beauty salon in Glasgow for her first-ever permanent as a sophomore at Temple Hill High School, she knew then and there what she wanted as a career.

“There was just something about the friendliness in the shop, the interesting way the operator fixed not only mine but others' hair, I just felt I had a knack for it, and from that day I decided to be a beautician.”

Her career prediction proved to be accurate as she has styled hair at Hodgenville's Powder Puff for 61 years and has owned it for over 55 years.

 How does it feel to be 100?

Vanessa McFarland is thankful to be alive, and in her opinion, it is because of the free services offered to her through the Community Health Clinic of Hardin and LaRue Counties.
McFarland, who is battling ailments including type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and thyroid issues, began going to the clinic about six years ago.
With no health insurance, little income and the need for treatment of her chronic conditions, a friend recommended she schedule an appointment at the community clinic.

During this Christmas season when gifts are on the mind of most people, Kelly Clark is thankful that she has received a special present that is free and yet priceless – the gift of life.

“The doctor told me that I should be dead, that I should have bled out,” Clark, 29, said, remembering a car accident on an icy LaRue County road Feb. 21, 2009, that left her with a severed carotid artery, multiple facial fractures, a broken collarbone, fractured shoulder blade and bleeding on her brain.

While Jerry Williams and Ken Baldwin were putting the finishing touches to their Christmas CD, “Strings and Bows,” last year at Williams’ home on North Lincoln Boulevard in Hodgenville, the two planted a seed idea for another album of a completely different nature.
“I’m a Civil War buff and, since the War occurred 150 years ago, I thought that putting together a mixture of traditional and original songs with a flavor of the period would be a timely project,” said Williams.

The need for blood is constant. In fact every two seconds someone in the U.S. is in need.
That’s why on the second Tuesday of every other month, downtown Hodgenville is lined with signs urging people to donate blood at the Hodgenville Woman’s Club.
“It’s a simple, but life saving process,” said Volunteer Coordinator Faye Puyear “The actual giving blood part only takes eight to 10 minutes.”

Jim Routt of Sonora worked construction for 35 years. When he retired at 65, he stopped building frames and began building fires for barbecue.

Along with his barbecue business, Bucksnort Barbeque, he also volunteers with Carpenters for Christ.

Routt, 68, has lived in Hardin County most of his life. He lived outside the county for 10 years when he served in the U.S. Navy and worked for a telephone company in Florida. In 1969, he moved back to Hardin County and started to work in the construction business.