In many communities, Southern Bank is more than a place to manage money. It hosts chamber meetings, opens first accounts for graduates, and anchors longstanding commercial relationships on Main Street. As it marks 125 years, the bank’s story is less a chronicle of milestones than a record of countless everyday moments: the family taking its first mortgage, the barber renewing a business line, the community group funding a playground.

When W.A. Bulluck opened a small furniture store in Rocky Mount in 1900, he probably didn’t imagine that more than a century later, people would still be gathering under the Bulluck name — not just to shop, but to take part in what has become one of the area’s most recognizable local traditions. Today, Bulluck Furniture is one of Eastern North Carolina’s longest-running home furnishings businesses, and its annual Warehouse Sale is less of a retail event and more of a communi

ROCKY MOUNT, NC — For many parents, choosing a school is a search for a community that feels like home. For Furnikkia Strickland, the decision to enroll her children at Southside Academy was about finding an environment where her children could be seen, known, and supported. Today, she credits the school not just with her children’s academic growth, but with a transformation that has reached the very heart of her family life.