Recent Articles

BUNN -- Camron Durham made the most of his shortened track and field season this spring at Bunn High School.
Durham and his Wildcats' teammates only got to participate in three meets, but Durham set several personal bests during that abbreviated stretch.
Durham also made his collegiate decision as he has opted to continue his track and field career at William Peace University, which is located in Downtown Raleigh.

LOUISBURG -- The Louisburg College women's basketball team has announced the signing of Ra'shya Speight of Farmville Central High School in Pitt County.
The 5-6 guard led her team to back to back 2A state championship games her final two seasons in high school. Her senior season, the Jaguars finished with a record of 25-3 and 10-0 in the Eastern Plains 2A conference.

WAKE FOREST - Carla Gillespie May, and James Elton May Jr., husband and wife, died unexpectedly on Sunday, May 10, 2020 at the ages of 56 and 59 while scuba diving off the North Carolina Coast.

LOUISBURG - Nellie Vaughan Rogers, 95, of Louisburg, died Saturday afternoon.

LOUISBURG--Chad Ellis Gleason, 49, of Louisburg died Saturday, May 16, 2020. Services will be private.

LOUISBURG - Nadine Gray Eakes, 85, of Louisburg, died Saturday night, May 16, 2020. A private graveside service will be held Thursday, May 21, at Ransdell Chapel Baptist Church cemetery.

LOUISBURG--Funeral services for Margaret O. Veta Cates Boone, 85, who died Thursday, May 14, 2020, will be held Saturday, May 23, at 11 a.m. at Rocky Chapel Baptist Church in Louisburg with Pastor Rory Sneed officiating. Burial will follow in the Rocky Chapel Church cemetery.

LOUISBURG--Funeral services for Jelisa "Binky" Smith, 31, who died Friday, May 15, 2020, will be held Friday, May 22, at 1 p.m. in the Richardson Funeral Home Chapel in Louisburg. Burial will follow in the Cemetery on the Hill.

LOUISBURG--Funeral services for Julius "Calvin" Holden Jr., 60, who died Thursday, May 14, 2020, will be held Wednesday, May 20, at 2 p.m. in the Richardson Funeral Home Chapel in Louisburg, with the Rev. Randolph Alston officiating.

LOUISBURG--Funeral services for Willie Gray Arrington, 88, who died Wednesday, May 13, 2020, will be Saturday, May 16, at 2 p.m. in the Richardson Funeral Home Chapel in Louisburg, with the Rev. Dwight Gill officiating. Burial will follow in the Cedar Rock Church cemetery.

LOUISBURG--Graveside services for Queenie Mae Strickland, 75, who died Wednesday, May 13, 2020, will be Sunday, May 17, at 2 p.m. in the Cedar Rock Church cemetery in Castalia with the Rev. Sylvester White officiating.

LOUISBURG -- An uninvited intruder -- COVID-19 -- shaped much of the discussion at a glitchy virtual meeting of the Franklin County Board of Education Monday night as school officials struggle to handle the challenges the virus has caused for local students and the school system.
"There are a lot of unknowns" at the moment regarding the reopening of schools in August, Schools Superintendent Rhonda Schuhler cautioned the school board.

LOUISBURG -- As restrictions were being lifted for COVID-19, Franklin County recorded its highest single day increase in confirmed cases and its second outbreak at an assisted living facility.
On May 8, the number of COVID-19 cases and tracking information across North Carolina gave officials confidence to ease restrictions on public movements and allowed more businesses to open as part of Phase 1.

YOUNGSVILLE -- Town commissioners approved a $4.2 million budget, moved forward with plans to build a new public works building and gave its town manager a pay raise.
The only thing that remained static was the Main Street Improvements Plan.
The decisions were made during the board's May 7 meeting -- a virtual affair that allowed the public to participate via teleconference.

CASTALIA -- One of the three goals for the Northeast Franklin County Revitalization Committee is to attract more people -- and their money -- to the oft-neglected portion of Franklin County.
A couple months ago, they took their own advice by touring a gold mine that straddles Nash and Franklin counties.

BEAUFORT -- Several media outlets are reporting the death of a Franklin County couple during a weekend scuba diving incident off Cape Lookout.
The Franklin Times was unable to get direct confirmation from the U.S. Coast Guard, but, locally, family and friends were lamenting the demise of James and Carla May.

HONOLULU -- Naval service took Davie Lee Williams from his Halifax Road home in Louisburg to war patrols aboard a submarine in the South China Sea.
On July 2, 1944, according to historians, duty called and the USS Robalo spotted a Fuso-class battleship with air cover and two destroyers for escort ... just east of Borneo.
There was no other message and when the Robalo didn't return from patrol, she was presumed lost.

Bunn native Chuck Mann

LOUISBURG -- Authorities arrested someone they allege swindled a disabled woman out of money and her car.
On May 5, Butner police arrested Ellen Page Newton, 54, of Louisburg, charging her with two counts of exploiting the trust of a disabled or elderly person and 16 counts of obtaining property by false pretense.

These are strange times and it's not just this danged virus that has upset the apple cart.
Over the weekend, wearing a hoodie -- in May! -- to work in the yard just didn't seem right. But with the temperatures combined with a strong breeze, the old hoodie felt really good in the morning hours.

It's fair to say that in the last few weeks, heck, probably the last few days, things have gone cattywampus.
Of course, it all started as the coronavirus spread as a silent killer -- considered malarkey by many -- until the disease began killing enough people to generate the kind of provable data that warranted a brouhaha amongst the media.

LOUISBURG -- The Town Planning Board took a step backward in order to move forward with regulations on generating electrical power from solar panels during a virtual meeting last Thursday.
Back in 2012, the planners adopted the regulations but a clerical mistake meant that they were never properly adopted into the town's rules.

LOUISBURG -- Complaints about drug activity led Franklin County sheriff's deputies to make a drug arrest in White Level.
On May 6, Tyrone Neal, 48, was arrested and charged with two counts of trafficking in cocaine, and maintaining a vehicle for the purpose of selling a controlled substance.
According to authorities, the arrest was the result of a vehicle stop.