John Edwards revisits roots, campaigns in South

LANCASTER, South Carolina (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards burst into a hall on Wednesday in an often neglected corner of the United States to say he hadn't forgotten the people who lived there.

"I see the struggles that are happening in rural America," said Edwards, dressed in blue jeans and a jacket with "John Edwards '08" embroidered on it.

"The truth is, much of this part of America has been forgotten," he said to shouts of "Amen!" from the crowd where, as the last twangs of banjos faded, he was introduced as "a country boy who's done good."

The South Carolina native, a millionaire lawyer, is playing up his humble roots during a two-day tour through rural parts of the state, promising to help impoverished Americans if he wins the November election.

The southern U.S. state was the only state Edwards won during his failed 2004 presidential bid. This year he lags far behind Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois in the race for the Democratic party nomination.

He needs to win the South Carolina primary badly on Saturday to keep his presidential hopes alive.

BACK HOME, BACK ROADS

He set off on a foot-stomping two-day "Back Home, Back Roads Barnstorm" trip with bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys.

Edwards joined in a sing-a-long with a few hundred people who held hands and belted out "Amazing Grace."

Speaking earlier in the once-prosperous agricultural town of Bennettsville, Edwards said it was time the country had a president "who understands about your way of life" and knows the dilemmas faced by parents whose children feel they have to move away for a better life.

Edwards, a millworker's son and the first in his family to go to college, said South Carolina lost 6,000 jobs last month.

"What we need in rural America is a little economic fairness," he said. "You shouldn't have to live in New York City or Chicago or Los Angeles to do well in America."

Olin Moore, a 68-year-old purchasing agent with a construction company, said he would vote for Edwards. But asked if Edwards might win, he answered: "No."

Sharon Saleeby, of Bennettsville, said she would vote for him anyway. "It's nice to hear a candidate that talks about things that Americans care about. It's refreshing."

At a motor parts and gun shop, staples of the American South, Edwards was approached by Chyrll Hurst, a frail-looking woman who saw his bus and decided to stop. Hurst has late-stage breast cancer and wanted to tell Edwards she was praying for his wife Elizabeth, who has incurable breast cancer.

(Editing by Patricia Wilson and Howard Goller)