An old-order Mennonite community was established in 1976 by several families who relocated from Pennsylvania to the small town of Liberty in Casey County, Kentucky. The community allowed me to spend several days there in June of 1980 photographing them with the only stipulation that I couldn't "pose" any photos. They worked their fields and gardens, did other chores. The whole community went to church on Sunday using an old farmhouse as their place of worship. Update, August 2012. Jacob and Mabel Oberholtzer passed on, Jacob in 2010, Mabel in 2003. Their children, Ruth Alan, Earl and Verna still live in the area- all are married. Susan married and lives in Indiana. Sarah is married and lives in Missouri. David lives in Tennessee and is married. The Newswangers all left the area except for Anna who married Edward Martin. The Hoovers still live in the area. The Shirks, Phares, Amos and Lena still live in the area. The Kilmers, Amos, James and Samuel live in the area. Sandy Tucker passed away but Jerry still operates the Galilean Home. The Brubaker and Zimmerman families left the area years ago. Most of the local families except for the Hoovers are in the process of relocating to the Spencer Tennnessee area.

Malinda Lamb, a Louisville (KY) high school student, had her legs severed by a railroad car. She survived and began a torturous rehabilitation process. The photos follow her recovery through many days physical therapy, time with family members, her return to Male High School where she excelled academically and graduated in 1982.

Bernice Heyser died of cancer at 53. She had been a Hospice volunteer during the time her husband was dying of cancer as well. She agreed to open her life's final days to me and a writer and over the course of 18 months we watched her strength of character never fail while her body lost the battle.

The Louisville Burn Unit at Louisville General Hospital (KY) opened in 1984 and as of 1986 when these images were made was one of only two in Kentucky. The unit operates 24 hours a day with physicians and nurses providing intensive care for the patient who have suffered from the enormous trauma of burn injuries.

Dr. Geroge Nichols has over twenty year's experience as Kentucky's Chief Medical Examiner, an office he established in 1977. He has also been an instructor of pathology at the University of Louisville Medical School. In his role as Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Nichols has performed in excess of 10,000 autopsies, including the exhumation and subsequent examination of Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of the United States. These photographs from 1977 were the first made after he began work as the Chief Medical Examiner.

Alice Brandenburg was the first heart transplant patient in Kentucky. The procedure, performed by a medical team led by Dr. Laman Gray at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, August 24, 1984 was successful for Ms Brandenburg who had been suffering with severe heart disease for over two years. Ms Brandenburg, however, had problems over the next year, including alcohol and smoking issues. She had little family to help support her aside from a cousin, Robert Smith. She had two sons. One was incarcerated at the Kentucky State Penitentiary, the other son lived in North Carolina. She was readmitted to the hospital several times and on July 27, 1985 she died at Jewish from a ruptured pancreas aggravated by her alcohol abuse and her inability to stay on her organ anti-rejection medications.

Residents in the Cranks Creek area in Harlan County, Kentucky dealing with low income, poverty and hunger. The Cranks Creek Survival Center operated by Rebecca and Bobby Simpson helps with food and clothing donations. Virgil Johnson, a former resident, working in Louisville organized a food drive and collected a trailer full of goods that he drove to the center for distribution. .November 1985

The Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville held the first open house for family and friends of inmates on Christmas Eve, 1977. The warden, Donald Bordenkircher and staff worked with the inmates to improve morale and make repairs to the facility. The event was successful and it was continued through 1984.

Funeral service for Robert (Moose) Holston, 27, Kentucky chapter president of the Iron Horseman motorcycle club. He was buried by his club members at a "cycle funeral" at St. Stephens Cemetery in Ft. Thomas, KY. Holston was stabbed to death during a fight at the headquarters of the Seventh Sons motorcycle club in Newport, KY. About 500 cyclists from Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana attended the funeral.

In 1980, Joe Bowen walked 3,000 miles across the United States on stilts to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy research. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, he holds the world record for the longest stilt-walk. He also stilt-walked in five European countries to raise money for philanthropic purposes. This selection of photographs are from a stilt walking tour Bowen made from his home in eastern Kentucky to the state capitol in Frankfort.

Lexie Palmore pilots the Delta Queen steamboat down the Ohio River, June, 1977. She was the first female to become a riverboat pilot trainee, completing courses at the National River Academy in Helena, Arkansas. She began her interest in riverboating as a passenger on the Delta Queen, later becoming a cabin maid. She now pursues her life-long interest in painting from her home in Leadville, Colorado.

Bernie Mattlingly, a Spalding College graduate in the Nursing program, is one of the first men to take up nursing as a career. His preferred field is rural nursing and requires him to make home visits to people unable to afford health care or are unable to get to a physicians office on a regular basis.

Residents of Marengo and English, Indiana try to recover from the worst flooding in their history. Over 12 feet of water from the Little Blue River engulfed the towns, July 31, 1979. This flooding was the result of the junction of four tributaries of similar topography. The peak flow of these reaches the Little Blue River almost simultaneously resulting in flash floods. The tributaries are Camp Fork Creek, Dog Creek, Bird Creek, Hollow Creek, and Brownstone Creek. Eventually the towns in Crawford County were relocated to higher ground in 1990.

The Ladies Home, a residential care facility for elderly women in Jeffersonville, Indiana, ceased operation in November, 1984. The home was built in 1881 by George and Barbara Pfau. In 1906 it was converted to the "Old Ladies Home" for Civil War widows. The house was the Haven House Homeless Shelter from 1985-1996 and after two major fires the house was shuttered and sat empty and in disrepair until 2002. The property was sold at auction in April, 2002 to a couple, Steve and Carol Stenbro, A 3 ½ year massive renovation brought the place back to its current state as a bed & breakfast inn, the Market Street Inn...This set of photographs is from the last day of occupation by the elderly women who had lived there for many years.

Two couple in the Louisville, KY area in 1978 decided to have the birth of their babies at home. The home birth movement at the time prompted them to prepare diligently. Their outcome were completely different. One couple, the Polks, had major difficulties in labor and were forced to go to the hospital to save the birth. Nine days afterwards the couple took their child, Charlie, home against medical advice. The second couple, the Singlers, had a successful birth of a daughter with the assistance of a doula.

Lucille Reisz, teacher and principal at the Spring St. Elementary School in New Albany, Indiana, loved and respected by many during her long tenure, give her a sendoff on the last day of the 1977 school year. After she retired the school was renamed to the Lucille Reisz Elementary School. Ms Reisz died in 1985 and the school was closed in 1991. It has now been reopened as the Lucille Reisz Adult Learning Center.

Lois Windhorst, head of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter in Louisville, Kentucky at a candlelight vigil remembering victims. December 12, 1982.

Providence high school seniors from Clarksville, Indiana took on the challenge of making a parachute jump as part of their 2-day Mini-course the school offered. The group went to the Green County skydiving school located near Bardstown, KY for the experience.

The University of Louisville Cardinals football team traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to play the University of Alabama. Saturday, October 22. U of L, coached by Vince Gibson, had a game plan, but were overwhelmed by their opponents, 55-6. Playing for Alabama was Ozzie Newsome, the senior wide receiver who caught a long touchdown pass in the first quarter. Newsome would go on to an all-pro career with the Cleveland Browns. Coach Gibson led his team to a post-season bowl appearance in the Independence Bowl and a 7-4 season. Gibson died in 2012 from ALS disease.

Mitch McConnell campaigns for the Jefferson County (KY) Judge Executive job in Louisville, KY, October/November 1977. McConnell won the election and would serve in the position until 1984 when he was elected to the United States Senate where he continues to serve as the longest tenure Senator from Kentucky. At the time of his election in Kentucky he was married to Sherrill Redmon. His second wife, whom he married in 1993, is Elaine Chao, the former Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush (the first Asian American woman to serve in the Cabinet). He has three daughters from his first marriage.

The Louisville Ballet on tour to Miami, Florida. May, 1983. The company dancers performed Billy the Kid. On break from dancing the corp enjoyed biking in the Everglades, an afternoon relaxing aboard a cruise ship and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in South Beach. One of the dancers gave a workshop to inner-city kids in the Liberty community.

The Louisville Ballet is the only regional company to have had Mikhail Baryshnikov perform as an artist-in residence. He danced with the company during the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons.

The St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. There is a school of theology taught by the Benedictine monks and the institution is known for it's publishing ventures, the Abbey Press.

Renfro Valley is a neighborhood located just off Interstate 75 in Mount Vernon, a city in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, United States. The community of Renfro Valley (which has its own United States Post Office, zip code 40473) includes the Renfro Valley Entertainment Center. Since being founded by local area native John Lair and others in 1939, Renfro Valley Entertainment Center has hosted the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, a traditional country music show which gave entertainers such as Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Red Foley, and Homer and Jethro the spotlight early in their careers. The Barn Dance and other programming originating in Renfro Valley was broadcast over the CBS Radio Network until the late 1950s.

Scenes from the University of Louisville (KY) Hospital twenty five years apart. I first photographed the unit in 1986 then again in 2011. While the treatment protocols have changed, the compassion and caring by the nurses and physicians has not.

Terry Kaiser, Miss Indiana, 1978. She was a graduate of DePauw University and planned to go the law school after her year's reign.

130 athletes competed in the first triathlon in the Louisville region, Saturday, July 13, 1985. Held at Guist Lake in Shelby County, the event included a half-mile swim, a 27-mile bike ride and a 6-mile run.

Tom Lear, a metal artist, created "Ex Astris," in his shop in Louisville, KY for installation in front of Centre College's Regional Arts Center building in Danville, KY. The 14', 1200lb structure was placed with a crane as Lear watched his project come to fruition

David Busse, videojournalist, began his career in Louisville, Kentucky for WAVE TV. He moved on to KABC in Los Angeles where he's worked since. Busse announced his retirement from his 40 + years in journalism at the end of August 2017. This set of images were from May 16, 1979.