Success Stories

Ron Patton of Holladay, Tennessee has seen more than his share of hard times.  A series of accidents and poor health has left him disabled since 2005.  Since purchasing his home and land in rural Benton County in 2000, it has become more and more difficult for him to… [Read More]

Rural Development has a multitude of programs that help communities expand upon their existing assets and assist in creating an infrastructure to help improve the lives of rural residents. For Linda Pickett, the opportunity to own a home has long seemed to be a distant reality.… [Read More]

Debbie Wright, City Recorder for the Town of Big Sandy, set out with a goal earlier this year to find a way to help very low income homeowners in Big Sandy and the Benton County Area obtain affordable financing to complete necessary home repairs.  Mrs. Wright contacted Mary… [Read More]

Lincoln Memorial University (LMU), founded in 1897 as a living memorial to Abraham Lincoln, is striving to rewrite the narrative of Appalachia in the Cumberland Gap of rural Northeastern Tennessee.  LMU recognized a rapidly growing need to expand its math and science… [Read More]

Senior citizens in the Greeneville, Tennessee area have been eager to call the brand new Barton Greene Apartments home.  “I was lucky enough to be able to move into Barton Greene, back to my home town.  The house I owned in Cleveland, TN was just too much to maintain… [Read More]

After years of uncertainty about whether it was safe to drink their water or if there would be enough, residents in rural Eastern Henry County in West Tennessee will now have access to safe, reliable water.  Private groundwater well contamination and the lack of a public… [Read More]

White Farms, a family-owned general partnership that operates a grain farming business in rural Carroll County of McKenzie, Tenn., was interested in producing electricity from solar as a renewable energy source for its farming operation. With the desire to become a “greener”… [Read More]

Many of us take access to modern electronic and technological services for granted. But for businesses in Rural America, the lack of high-speed internet connections can make a difference between success and layoffs. In 2009, Highland Telephone Cooperative (HTC) began pursuing… [Read More]

Gail Arnold’s dream of constructing a new home on her family’s property is coming true, with a home loan through the USDA’s Rural Development Rural Housing 502 loan program.  “This is my dream come true and I am so appreciative!” Arnold said at the ground breaking with… [Read More]

Cora Wyatt‘s dream of constructing a new home on her own property is coming true with a home loan through a partnership between the USDA’s Rural Development Rural Housing 502 loan program and FAHE’s (Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises, Inc) Project Reinvest initiative… [Read More]