Browsing: People

There is a side of college football that fans rarely get to see.

Long before a player’s name appears on a roster or echoes through a stadium, coaches spend months getting to know him. They study film, make phone calls, visit schools and have countless conversations about not only the athlete, but the young man behind the highlights.

Nestled in the historic Cotton Row in Cleveland, MS, is an award-winning wood-fired restaurant, Leña Pizza + Bagels. Founded in 2023 by world-renowned chef Marisol Doyle and her husband, Rory, Leña is widely recognized for its exceptional wood-fired pizzas and was named one of the Top 22 Pizzerias in the United States by the New York Times and has been listed as a top pizzeria in the South and the U.S. by 50 Top Pizza and Southern Living. But Marisol began her culinary journey in Cleveland with fresh bagels.

One of the first times I met Calvin was at a local event. He had a table covered with watercolors, colored pencils, paper, and every kind of art supply imaginable, all there for children to use. He wasn’t selling anything. He simply wanted kids to sit down, create, and discover the joy of making art. Looking back, I realize that little table perfectly represented who Calvin was. He believed creativity should never be limited by someone’s age, background, or ability to pay.

Once a teacher, always a teacher, but the subject matter and students can change after retirement. Moving from elementary students to floral designing and working with adult floral designers has been a rewarding change for Wanda Norton.

A Starkville couple is making their way across Mississippi one county seat at a time with a single goal: to pray over each community and encourage others to see the state in a more positive light. 

With a backpack on his shoulders, several phones in hand and thousands of thousands still ahead, Jack Kadis walked into Gautier on Thursday as part of his goal to walk the outline of the continental United States. 

The quote “Bloom where you are planted,” has a new meaning and purpose through the Dream Foundation’s program, The Bloom…

Kenzie Claire Burchfield was always going to attend Mississippi State University.

The daughter of current and retired MSU employees, Burchfield did not need much convincing to become a Bulldog. However, when she heard her friends at Starkville High School discuss a three-week summer theater camp “that sounded amazing” on the university’s campus, she knew she had to be there.

There is no place like home, and those words come from a person who literally has seen the whole world but has chosen to return to his childhood home in Mississippi for his retirement.

The Heirloom Hotel in downtown Laurel, Mississippi, is a boutique hotel created by HGTV’s Home Town stars Erin and Ben Napier, along with their business partners. The massive restoration transformed the historic 1930s Kress department store into a 29-bedroom hotel. Unfortunately, a devastating accidental electrical fire in August 2025 heavily damaged the property, leaving the insurance claim and rebuilding process ongoing. The entire restoration and ultimate demise of the building were featured on the HGTV series Home Town: Inn This Together, starring the Napirs and the vested families, Joshua and Emily Nowell, and Jim and Mallorie Rasberry.

If you know where to look, there are secret Ole Miss spirit messages written over north Mississippi, all thanks to University of Mississippi alumnus and pilot Joshua Gregory.

Yeah, the class slogan for my Pascagoula High School Class of 1966 was “We’re as great as great can be, the Seniors of ’66 are we.” Pretty corny I’ll admit, but it did—and still does—kind of speak to the feeling my classmates and I had/have about each other. That sentiment continued to be evident as we gathered in Pascagoula last week for our 60th class reunion.

Breanna O’Leary, an Alcorn State University graduate, is a professional NASCAR pit crew member who made sports history by breaking gender barriers in a heavily male-dominated motorsport. O’Leary’s trajectory connects her collegiate background at Alcorn State University to a trailblazing career on NASCAR’s pit road.

As I pulled into First Fruits Farm, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful it was. Wildflowers were blooming along the drive, and row after row of blueberry bushes stretched across the property. It felt like stepping into another world. Standing there, looking across the neatly kept rows, I found myself thinking of the vineyards you see in photos from places like Italy rather than a farm tucked away in rural Mississippi.

Jake Gibbs enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1957. Sixty-nine years and one legendary career later, cheering for the Rebels has become a family tradition that he shares with his sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Native Son Farm is one of northeast Mississippi’s best treasures. Ironically, it’s also somewhat of a hidden treasure to many of the countless people who come to Tupelo, Mississippi, each week for shopping and entertainment purposes.