With stylish clothes and long blonde curls, Sundi McLaughlin looks right at home among the perfume, books, jewelry, decor, and homemade candles in her Southern Pines shop, Mockingbird on Broad. So at home that some of her fellow Broad Street shopkeepers were shocked to learn of her previous occupation — as a prison deputy. But for those who knew McLaughlin’s spontaneous side, it wasn’t that surprising.
After all, it was a whim that, more than 20 years ago, drove McLaughlin to move to Key West to go shell diving. She shared her collection at a roadside shell stand, where she loved chatting with travelers about the colorful conchs. Two years later, she traded her bathing suit for a police uniform and a midnight shift in a Florida correctional facility, where she held art contests for prisoners. When her husband was stationed at Fort Bragg in 2008, McLaughlin once again found herself with a fresh start. In 2010, she purchased her Broad Street storefront and gave the brick facade a fresh coat of blue paint.
Today, Mockingbird on Broad is filled with thoughtful gifts, each of which McLaughlin describes as passionately as if it were a rare conch.
Mockingbird on Broad
162 NW Broad Street
Southern Pines, NC 28387
(910) 692-5338
mockingbirdonbroad.com
To commemorate our 90th anniversary, we’ve compiled a time line that highlights the stories, contributors, and themes that have shaped this magazine — and your view of the Old North State — using nine decades of our own words.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
Us? An icon? Well, after 90 years and more than 2,000 issues celebrating North Carolina from mountains to coast, we hope you’ll agree that we’ve earned the title.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
