Recent Articles

LOUISBURG -- Talent, leadership and heart are three intangibles that will take a student-athlete a long way -- just look at the exceptional to-date softball career of Louisburg High School's Chelsea Roberson.
Roberson was a diamond starter from the first day she arrived at LHS, and was an outstanding shortstop during her freshman season.

BUNN -- Bunn has produced its share of elite-level catchers on the softball diamond over the past 25 years, including Melanie Lovin, the program's current head coach.
Certainly, Lovin knows a thing or two about the position from her days of working behind the plate for legendary pitcher Misty Faircloth.

WENDELL -- East Wake High School has become known as 'Bunn West' to folks in Franklin County as its athletic staff is filled with coaches with ties to the Wildcats.
A former 'Cat will now be leading EWHS' sports as Chuck Mann as been selected as the Warriors' new Athletic Director.
Mann spent the past five years as the school's Assistant Athletic Director under the legendary Jon Hasbrouck.

LOUISBURG -- When he was a student-athlete at Louisburg College, Larrell Murchison was described by then-football coach Trevor Highfield as the model player and person for the rest of his program.
Murchison lived up to those lofty expectations at Louisburg College and beyond -- and he recently received the ultimate award courtesy of the National Football League.

GREENSBORO -- Rosters have been selected for the annual North Carolina Coaches Association's East-West All Star Basketball Games.
The girls-boys hoops doubleheader is scheduled for July 20 at the historic Greensboro Coliseum.

WILSON -- Committed to a higher level of baseball learning for its participants, the Wilson Tobs Youth Summer Baseball Camps are excellent opportunities for young ballplayers to enhance their skills and broaden their game knowledge.
Coordinated by the Tobs Head Coach, Assistants, and Players the Tobs staff will work with all participants to enhance the camper's fundamentals and individual athletic skills.

NELSON, VA--Jackie Garrett Arrington, 62, of Nelson, VA, died Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at Maria Parham Hospital in Henderson. Due to the pandemic and social distancing, a private graveside service was held Saturday, May 9, at Union Chapel Baptist Church, Clarksville, VA.

BUNN--Funeral services for Alvis "Ray" Webb, 74, who died Thursday, May 7, 2020, were held Tuesday, May 12, at the Richardson Funeral Home Chapel in Louisburg, with the Rev. Pete Brodie officiating. Burial followed in the Cemetery on the Hill.

LOUISBURG--Ramona Dement Marshall, 90, of Louisburg transitioned peacefully into eternal rest on Monday, May 11, 2020 at her home. She was born on February 8, 1930 to the late Joseph and Frances Edwards Dement.

BRANDON, FL--Peggy Glynn Bader, 80, of Brandon, FL, died Monday, May 11, 2020. Services will be held at a later date at Red Bud Baptist Church.

LOUISBURG -- During this COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers have been on the frontlines.
This past weekend, area pilots showed them some love from the skyline.
Dozens of pilots gathered at Triangle North Executive Airport, Franklin County's airport, before taking off in a parade of planes that flew over Maria Parham Franklin's emergency room before embarking on a flight pattern to Duke Hospital in Durham, UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, Rex Hospital in Raleigh, WakeMed in Cary and WakeMed in Raleigh -- ultimately forming a heart.

LOUISBURG -- Franklin County nearly went a week without reporting a new COVID-19-related death. That changed by Wednesday, though, when the state reported another person who had been a resident at Louisburg Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center had died.
Still, the downturn in new cases and deaths comes as Gov. Roy Cooper began unveiling a plan to reopen the state in phases, beginning on Friday.

The 2020 high school graduates of Franklin County Schools won't have a traditional ceremony this year -- but they certainly will have a lot to enjoy and remember.
School officials have devised a way to honor the graduates, keep everyone as safe as possible -- and share the excitement via the district's YouTube channel beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 13.

LOUISBURG -- Franklin County commissioners agreed to move forward with a space swap that could commit the county to spending $3.5 million to expand Vance-Granville Community College in the future.
During the Franklin County Board of Commissioners' April 20 meeting, County Manager Angela Harris advised commissioners that Franklin County Schools and VGCC were working out a plan to move the Early College High School program into Vance-Granville Community College's Building 5

LOUISBURG -- An aircraft mechanics' operation and an avionics lab announced expansions at Triangle North Executive Airport.
Both Total Flight Solutions and Triangle Avionics are huge assets for the county's aviation community that service both existing airfield tenants as well as numerous outside clients, county staff said.

Louisburg resident Tucker Gupton

LOUISBURG -- County management is expected to present county commissioners with a budget that doesn't raise taxes, provides options for employee raises and could expand the county's workforce -- but not as much as requested.
And, in light of reduced revenues associated with COVID-19, County Manager Angela Harris said staff is being even more conservative with projecting sales tax revenue and tax collection rates.

Kenbridge,VA.­-- Ten high school seniors from northern North Carolina and Southside Virginia are each receiving $1,000 scholarships presented by Benchmark Community Bank. The annual $mart$tart Community Commitment Scholarship is named for the bank's $mart$tart money management program designed for ages 13-17.

Let's all step away from the face masks, social distancing and concerns about the virus for just a few moments and focus on some other local topics worthy of consideration.
If you like to watch local governments dealing with challenges, then you're going to have a ball over the next few years comparing how Louisburg's new industrial park venture compares with Franklin County's long standing and mostly vacant industrial park fiasco.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, probably all of us have come across news headlines that we never thought we'd see in our lifetime.
About eight months ago, the World Health Organization said video game addiction is officially considered a mental disorder, according to a Forbes.com story.
Last month, the WHO recommended video games as an effective way to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

If you are like me, your email has been flooded with stories about COVID-19 lately. Most articles use faceless data like unemployment figures, infection rates, and economic losses to paint a sobering picture of an unpredictable global health crisis with an uncertain outcome.
One story, however, had a face.

Dear Editor:
This is a tribute to a most loyal and valuable Franklin County citizen, Mary Mitchell Murphy.
What her vim, vigor, enthusiasm you cannot imagine to add quality of life and faith to human kind for her fellow citizens in her local, state, national and whole world life.

Dear Editor:
I was so proud to watch Saturday's Fly-Over honoring health care workers as the planes flew over our Maria Parham Franklin Hospital!
I applaud Bo Carson's effort to get our hospital included in the Fly-Over and the work of the commissioners and Town of Louisburg to get this crucial facility back in our county.