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Abigail Murray is one of 10 North Carolina middle school students to receive a college scholarship worth up to $20,000 from the College Foundation Inc.

Murray, a seventh-grader at West Rockingham Middle School, was honored with an assembly Dec. 17.

For the past three years, the foundation has awarded the Victor E. Bell Jr. Scholarship to seventh-graders who aspire to a college education. Students who receive the scholarship earn $2,000 a year through their fourth year of college as long as they meet certain criteria.

The scholarship is named in honor of the former chairman of the CFI board of trustees. who served for 30 years and left a strong legacy of service to North Carolina.

George Murphy, principal of West Rockingham Middle, said school administrators nominated Murray because of her excellent grades, attendance and behavior.

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The JobsNow program of Rockingham County has its first graduates. Twenty-two students graduated in December from the program at Rockingham Community College with either a customer relations specialist or warehouse technician certificate.

Graduates include: Carolyn Truitt, Chastity Lynn, Brenda Pass, Geneva Case, Sara Corley, Trina Hampton, Monica Tucker, Eva Diaz, Kimberley Smith, Tony Hawks, Shayna Gentry, Linda Watlington, Lavonda Moore, Starla Hawkins, Lionel Jeffries, Lee Trevino, Lewis Wagoner, Paul Collins, Randy Martin, Juan Anderson, Ray Case, James Frazee and Scott Weeks.

In April, Gov. Bev Purdue launched JobsNow, which is designed to quickly train people for marketable jobs.

RCC offers training for the following occupations: customer relations specialist, warehouse technician, law enforcement, certified nursing assistant, and phlebotomist. These courses will be taught again starting Jan. 6. Call
342-4261, Ext. 2238, for more information.

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Sheerin Berkhead of Eden won a $1,000 gift card from the Carolinas Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross. Berkhead was one of three winners in the “Give Blood & See America” promotion held July through September.

Berkhead donated blood for the first time at Leaksville-Spray Elementary School, where one of her three children, Isabelle, attends.

“I donated to get over my lifelong fear of needles,” Berkhead said. “I have always known the importance of donating blood and I am so happy and proud that I did this. The experience was very easy and I am sure I am a donor for life now.”

Call (800) 448-3543 or visit RedCrossBlood.org for more information or to locate a blood drive near you.

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Rockingham Community College has a great new book for local citizens searching for their past. College librarian Mary Gomez and local historian Michael Perdue compiled a list of all death notices that appeared in local newspapers between 1876 and 1907. The new book, “Death Notices from Reidsville, NC Newspapers, 1876-1907,” arrived this month and will be in the historical collections room.

People also can access the death notices by visiting www.rockinghamcc.edu/library/hcr.htm, and scrolling down the page to find the link to the book.

The book took more than five years of labor. “Newspapers did not have obituary sections,” said Gomez. “We had to look through each page of every paper. It was time consuming. Because of my work schedule, Michael wound up doing a great deal of the research.”

The work paid off. Among notices of local tobacco prices and events at the local opera house, they found the one-line notices or paragraphs concerning the deceased. “It was like finding windows into life in Rockingham County one hundred years ago,” said Gomez. “There was typhoid and pneumonia, farming injuries and fire. People were murdered. It was so interesting.”