Features

The historic Brunswick County seaport town of Southport is springing into spring with its 28th annual Spring Festival this Friday and Saturday in Franklin Square Park.

Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m Friday, March 29, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, March 30.

Festivities include arts and crafts, a chili cook-off, food and entertainment at the event co-orchestrated by Downtown Southport and the Southport-Oak Island Kiwanis Club.

More than 130 crafters will be featuring handmade goods.

Herbert and Evelyn Bernistine Pittman are celebrating six decades together.

On March 15, the couple, who live in Laurinburg and have a house at Holden Beach, celebrated their 60th anniversary.

They celebrated by going out to eat. They also visited their house at Holden Beach that weekend.

On April 6, they’re expecting a gathering of up to 60 family members to help them celebrate at General McArthur’s Restaurant in Laurinburg.

OCEAN ISLE BEACH—An Ocean Isle Beach boutique is the only local store to carry NBC “Fashion Star” contestant Amber Perley’s fashions.

A year ago, the tulip tree Boutique owner Robin Putnam never dreamed she would own and operate a women’s and children’s boutique in Ocean Isle Beach, let alone to carry the designs of a designer making a national name for herself and her clothing.

“I found Amber online after I decided to open the shop,” Putnam said. “It was very spur-of-the-moment.”

Family fun is planned for at an Easter egg hunt scheduled for 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, March 23, in Calabash Town Park.

The free event is sponsored by River of Life Baptist Church.

Highlights include hot dogs, drinks, games, crafts and an egg hunt for different age groups. There will also be an opportunity for free pictures of children with the Easter Bunny.

In the event of rain, this event will be rescheduled for March 30.

For more information, check the church web site at riveroflifebaptistchurch.com or call (910) 575-6377.

This North Carolinian of Note profile was produced by students in Dean Emeritus Richard Cole’s feature writing class in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The profiles were distributed by the North Carolina Press Foundation. For reprint information, contact sandynie@email.unc.edu.

Editor’s note: This North Carolinian of Note profile was produced by students in Dean Emeritus Richard Cole’s feature writing class in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The profiles were distributed by the North Carolina Press Foundation. For reprint information, contact sandynie@email.unc.edu.

By Kate Farmer
UNC-Chapel Hill

Brunswick Little Theatre is launching its 30th and most ambitious year ever.

BLT’s first production of the season, “The Dixie Swim Club,” opens March 8 and continues through March 17 at Playhouse 211 at 1320 Southport-Supply Road (N.C. 211).

Directed by George Shafer, this hilarious and touching comedy is about five Southern women who meet every year at the same beach cottage on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to renew friendships and recharge their lives.

Local author Tom Rieber will speak at Hickmans Crossroads Library at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22.

Rieber is featured speaker at the facility’s Friends of the Library annual meeting.

Rieber loves a good mystery, especially when it involves his protagonist, Nick Thomas.

The Brunswick County writer has penned mysteries, “Nine Irony” and “Devil’s Parody,” centered around Rieber’s main character, Thomas, as he goes face-to-face with a reclusive sociopath in the remote Vermont woods.

By Ellen Werner
UNC-Chapel Hill
Woody Durham was sitting with friends at a restaurant several years ago, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Excuse me for interrupting your dinner, but I recognized your voice,” a man from a nearby table said.
Known as the “Voice of the Tar Heels” for the 40 years he spent doing radio broadcasts for UNC-Chapel Hill basketball and football, Durham is no stranger to Carolina sports fans, even those who have never seen his wrinkled, friendly face.