Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 878
Eastern New Mexico University has fired its strength and conditioning coach and banned him from the campus, the coach told The News on Monday. Cory Bell was arrested following a Nov. 1 altercation in the ENMU football field house. Court records show Bell pushed a graduate assistant coach to the ground, causing him to strike his head against a wall. Bell was arrested the same day as the incident and charged with battery, a third-degree felony. Bell said he was notified of his dismissal from ENMU in a document delivered the...
On this date … 1940: A man known “from the Pecos River to the Texas line as a character of the old days of the West,” died in a Clovis hospital at age 75. The Clovis News-Journal reported that Frank H. “Doctor” Childs died from injuries suffered when he was “slugged and robbed” in El Paso a few days earlier. Childs, who homesteaded near Melrose in 1908, was easily recognized throughout the region because he was always “well dressed ... with a cane slung over his arm,” CN-J reported. 1946: Movies playing in local theaters in...
Christine Gallegos will always remember Marcos Ramirez as a big jokester and a great guy. He was a role model, too, she said, the kind of man who stood up for those who didn’t have a voice. “He had a bit of a rough start,” said Gallegos, a family friend who knew Ramirez since he was in junior high. “His mom was a teen mom, so they kind of grew up together.” After high school, Ramirez joined the Army as a paratrooper and then returned to his hometown of Clovis to take care...
Four juvenile males – age 15 to 16 -- were charged Thursday morning with murder after a gun deal "went bad" in the Hilltop Shopping Center parking lot on West 21st Street in Clovis. Court records allege Marcos Ramirez, 26, met the boys with a gun he had for sale late Wednesday afternoon. One of the boys then shot Ramirez who died soon after at Plains Regional Medical Center, police allege. A man who was with the victim told police he saw one of the boys fire a gun into the bac... Full story
Eastern New Mexico University rodeo coach Albert Flinn has been placed on administrative leave following criminal allegations of embezzlement and animal cruelty filed against him in Roosevelt County Magistrate Court. An affidavit for issuance of criminal summons was filed Nov. 4 in the court, charging Flinn, 83, with two counts of embezzlement (under $20,000) and one count of cruelty to animals. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Flinn had turned himself into the court. T...
On this date … 1946: A man had been arrested on allegations he made “improper advances” toward a young girl in a Clovis movie theater. Police were called to the theater after the girl’s father threatened to beat up the suspect. When police arrived, the suspect ran from the theater. Police captured him a few blocks away. “A local physician said that the man was either intoxicated or under the influence of dope, but that he was probably temporarily insane,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. 1961: Portales consumers were cuttin...
One person was shot to death and two others were taken to the Clovis hospital with gunshot wounds early Wednesday evening. Clovis police said a vehicle crash near the scene was related to the shootings. Police said all the gunshot victims are believed to have been involved in the incident. Police were looking for at least one other person who may also have been involved. The violence began sometime before 4:45 p.m. when police received a report of a shooting in the 2200 block... Full story
On this date … 1952: Three Roosevelt County businesses had been hit by burglars, but the only significant loss was $40 from a Portales farm supply store’s cash drawer, soft drink and candy dispensers. An Elida service station reported two old automobile batteries were missing, but new batteries were left behind. The service station was also missing a gallon of milk. A Roosevelt County Sheriff’s deputy said it wasn’t clear if the three burglaries were related. 1952: Authorities were investigating the poisoning of 16 head of...
On this date … 1966: Clovis police investigator Cliff Wirtjes had earned the highest score in the annual policeman’s shooting competition. Wirtjes scored 663 out of a possible 800 to take the top-gun trophy for the second year in a row. 1969: The Clovis Junior Women’s Club had announced its annual home tour. Five Clovis homes were scheduled to be decorated for the holidays and open for public viewing. The homes were located at • 701 E. 21st • 1744 Baronne Court • 1617 Courtland Circle • 2824 Axtell • 1921 Enloe Drive. Ti...
A Clovis woman accused of killing a man she said was a stalker was found not guilty of murder Friday by a Clovis jury. Alexandra Romero told police she shot Javier Jimenez in August 2023 after she found him trespassing on her property. She said Jimenez had left her death threats on her phone and “she was in fear of her and her children’s safety” when she shot him. Authorities initially charged her with voluntary manslaughter, then upgraded the charge to murder after prose... Full story
Three people found dead in a Clovis motel parking lot were likely victims of carbon monoxide poisoning, police said Tuesday. The victims -- Hector Flores, 29, Alizara Gallegos, 19, and Flores’ young son, Aaden Flores -- were found in a running car on Saturday afternoon outside the La Vista Inn. Police immediately said they did not suspect foul play. Inspection of the vehicle, described in police records as a black Chrysler, showed its “exhaust pipe was broken in half … it lo... Full story
On this date … 1950: A 54-year-old tenant farmer was found dead in a ditch about 12 miles southwest of Muleshoe. Officials said the man tied a rope around his neck, fastened the other end to the steering wheel of his car, and jumped out of the car while it was in motion. Investigators estimated the car traveled 200 yards after the man’s body hit the ground; it was found stalled in a field. 1956: Officials at Clovis Air Force Base were asking residents to avoid trespassing on the Melrose Gunnery Range. Lt. Col. Bernie Bas...
Editor’s note: This is the first in an ongoing series of questions/answers related to the Ute Water Pipeline, a project intended to provide a sustainable municipal and industrial water supply for several eastern New Mexico communities and Cannon Air Force Base. The water will come from Ute lake reservoir in Quay County. Editor David Stevens is submitting the questions to Mike Morris and Orlando Ortega, chairman and director, respectively, of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. Readers may suggest questions by e... Full story
Bill Southard must have enjoyed Halloween. At least he wrote a lot about it when he was managing editor at the Clovis News-Journal for much of the 1970s and early 1980s. Some of his spooky reports were funny – we'll get to the naked woman in a minute – and some were real-life scary – like the time Clovis leaders asked kids to skip trick-or-treating due to concerns about poison candy. He wrote about the "good old days" of the holiday, "when kids used a good deal of ingenuity in the tricks they performed." There was the time...
On this date … 1940: Two young male lions were sold to a circus by the Clovis zoo. Cole Bros. Circus purchased the lions and a monkey in a cash transaction following its Clovis performances, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 1940: Clovis High School band members needed new uniforms and they were willing to work for them. Band members said Nov. 9 was going to be “Hobo Day,” during which they would mow lawns, clean up trash, wash dishes or perform just about any other task in excha...
Everett Frost was not Eastern New Mexico University’s most famous president. He didn’t make many headlines. There are no streets or buildings named in his honor on the college campus. His work was largely behind the scenes. But Patrice Caldwell, his friend and colleague, credits Frost’s vision and relationship-building with decades of university growth that continues today. Frost, who died Monday at age 82, should be credited with building strong sister campuses at Roswell and Ruidoso, repairing a fractured relat...
On this date … 1937: A.L. Watson of Clovis was fined $100, with $50 suspended, after pleading guilty to riding with a drunken driver. The driver pleaded not guilty to the allegations and was going to trial. 1940: More than 100 blocks of Clovis city streets had been paved since March, city officials said. Eight more blocks were expected to be paved within the week — two on East Fifth, one on North Wallace, one on West Eighth, two on West 12th, one on North Reid and one on North Hull. 1941: An overnight drenching left far...
If you’re looking for a word to summarize Everett Frost’s contribution to Eastern New Mexico University, that word would be stability. That’s according to Steven Gamble, Frost’s friend who succeeded him as ENMU president in 2001. “A university can only grow when it has stability. Everett gave that stability to the institution and the institution advanced accordingly,” Gamble said Tuesday after learning of Frost’s death on Monday. Frost, who turned 82 last week, was ENMU’s ei...
Leon Williams was recuperating from heart surgery in 1970 when his daughter suggested they get out of the house. “Daddy,” she told him, “we need to get you out for a drive.” The family drove to one of Williams’ favorite places -- the Clovis High School football stadium where Leon played in the 1930s, where he broadcast maybe 100 games as a team booster, where he was affectionally known throughout the community as “Mr. Wildcat.” Soon after they pulled into the parking lot, Leon Williams noticed Wildcat Stadium had a new nam...
Virginia Montoya, 78, and her husband, Adan Lucero, 84, were sitting in their home Wednesday night in the 1300 block of Traver Street. They were watching television. The doorbell rang. Montoya got up to answer it. “JR, is that you?” she can be heard telling a man dressed in a light gray hoody with a dark mask over his face. “Leave!” Moments later, Lucero tells police, he heard a loud pop. “Virginia sat down on the love seat by the door and told (her husband) she had been shot... Full story
On this date … 1941: New Mexico’s state game commission had announced the 1941 quail season had been canceled. The decision was made “reluctantly,” wire services reported, because quail populations had suffered from heavy rains and flooding during the nesting season in the spring and again in September. Game Warden Elliott Barker said the birds had been recovering nicely until the September storms “virtually wiped them out.” 1960: David Thompson and Marsha Simms, both 11, were among Parkview Elementary School students pr...
On this date … 1951: Ramona Griego had been unable to celebrate her fourth birthday because she was in Clovis Memorial Hospital. The child, who lived at 205 Cameo, was suffering from polio, doctors said. She’d been admitted over the weekend with severe weakness in her arms and legs and was confined to bed. She was listed as Curry County’s 10th polio victim of the year. In August 1955, the Clovis News-Journal reported Ramona and a Tucumcari child had been flown to a hospital in Truth or Consequences for treatment. Ramon...
On this date … 1941: One robber was dead and three more in jail after a Grady hardware store owner fought off an attack. R. C. Knowles, operator of the store, told authorities two men entered the store and asked about purchasing bullets for a rifle. When Knowles, 74, reached for the bullets, one man jumped him and the other hit Knowles on the head. Knowles said he fought off his attackers, then opened fire on them with a pistol. A Portales man died on the sidewalk outside the store. Three other Portales men were arrested a d...
On this date … 1944: A Parmerton woman was recovering from an accident involving a pressure cooker. Mrs. G.H. Brock was cut by glass when a jar in the cooker exploded. Several stitches were required to close the wound. Parmerton was in central Parmer County, Texas, and was the county seat for seven months in 1907 before that distinction went to Farwell. 1946: Republican candidates had made “a strong bid for the veteran vote” at a rally in Portales. Gubernatorial candidate Ed Safford “declared flatly that he favored the sam...
On this date … 1969: The Eastern New Mexico University Symphony was preparing to make its season debut at the annual Pops Concert Banquet in the Campus Union ballroom. Symphony director was Arthur Welker. He planned to present selections from “My Fair Lady,” “South Pacific,” “Sound of Music” and “Carousel.” The banquet menu called for prime rib, baked potato, fruit cup, a vegetable and dessert. Admission was $2.75. That included the meal. 1970: The Portales Rams, fresh from a surprising 20-14 win over previously unbeat...
