A lifelong lumberjack from Bedford County was killed Saturday morning while he was trimming branches when a nearby uprooted tree fell and struck him on the back of the head.

Terry Roach, 48, of Huddleston died shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday when he was working with a cousin and two other loggers in the Hardy area, said Capt. Patrick Meeks of the Franklin County Department of Public Safety.

The tree's roots may have pulled out of the ground because the soil was moist and saturated with recent rainwater, Meeks said.

"It could have also been a freak accident," Meeks said. "Wrong place at the wrong time."

Roach began logging as a teenager for his grandfather's company, and later he and other family members opened similar companies of their own, said his wife, Vickie Roach.

He is survived by his wife; his daughters Vanessa Driskill, 27, and Emily Roach, 23; and seven grandchildren.

-- Jorge Valencia