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There were detours. She was born and raised in Pasadena, Calif., and as a teen became pregnant. "I decided to raise my baby to know and love the Lord," she recalls. She went to the

Hollywood Presbyterian Church where the pastor, Don Williams, told her that Jesus loved her. That was the first time she'd heard that. "I just broke down and sobbed," she

says. After her first marriage ended, she moved to Dallas and worked as a medical assistant for several physicians. Eighteen years ago she met her current husband, Ron McRoy, and they moved

to a remote rural area east of Paris, Texas, south of the Red River. "I wanted to quilt, garden and work on my genealogy," she says, but the local pastor urged her to become a lay

speaker. "I reluctantly accepted," she says. Her preaching has been helped by an earlier stint in broadcast journalism, which she studied in college. She worked for various TV

outlets in Los Angeles and took speech lessons. Then "God led me from Hollywood to rural Texas." ED SCHROCK Nothing worthwhile is easy. That's the mantra of Ed Schrock, a

former U.S. congressman and state senator who's now executive director of the Shepherd's Center of McLean-Arlington-Falls Church in Virginia. The center, which is one of several in

the U.S., gives rides to seniors who need to see their doctors, fill prescriptions, attend therapy sessions and make other essential trips. The center is run completely by volunteers —

retirees who want to do something good, says Schrock, who also spent 24 years in the Navy. The center has been operating for eight years, and he estimates that it will provide older people

more than 2,000 rides this year. "Many seniors want to age peacefully," he says. One of them is Liz McRaney, 73, who lives in Falls Church. She deals with some health issues, uses

a cane and hasn't driven in years. She tried public transportation, but service was spotty. Now the Shepherd's Center takes her where she needs to go. "They're very

caring and compassionate," she says. "They're my friends — I went out to lunch with a new driver. It's a faith-based service they're performing." Patrice Mauck,

a retired Marine living in Arlington, suffers from a cornea disease that prevents her from driving. So the 65-year-old leans on the Shepherd's Center for trips to Walter Reed Army

National Military Medical Center. "It's unusual in that it really fills a need," she says. "They're very focused on the needs of an individual person."

Thousands of seniors are grateful that the Shepherd's Center takes them for a ride. Lonnie Williams started a foundation dedicated to pulling others up. Whitney Curtis LONNIE WILLIAMS

As a boy, Lonnie Williams loved to go to the Jayhawk Theatre in Topeka, Kan. He enjoyed the cartoons that ran before the main feature. He liked the western serials — Lash LaRue, Buffalo

Bill, Geronimo. The feature film Frankenstein freaked him out.