Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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On this date ... 1951: It rained. Again. Previously parched eastern New Mexico received rain for the third consecutive day, more than 2.5 inches overall in some areas. “The three days of drought-breaking rain were greatly welcomed by jubilant farmers ... The rainy spell was hailed as a ‘million-dollar rain’ because it came at a time when crops were beginning to suffer and when spring planting was being delayed because of powder-dry soil,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. 1955...
We lost a legend last week. Bill Kelly, one of our region’s best offensive-minded college football coaches of all time, died Saturday. The Amarillo Globe-News reported Kelly, 75, died in Amarillo after an extended bout with pneumonia. The North Carolina native will be most remembered by many for his three seasons coaching at then-West Texas State University, from 1985 to 1987. His Buffs went 18-13-1 before Kelly stunned many in the sports world by switching careers at age 4...
On this date ... 1960: Portales city officials were pushing a proposed paving project. Promotional ads proclaimed, “The mayor and council members want to make as many progressive moves as possible, but we want your reaction because you are going to pay for the paving. If you do not protest, the city governing body will assume that you are in favor of the proposed paving.” 1961: Officials said faulty wiring was likely the cause of the previous night’s fire that destroyed the S...
A reader called last week, concerned about wind sculptures and metal art on Clovis’ Main Street. The gist of his concern is that the new downtown displays don’t really fit the “theme” of our community. This started me thinking. What exactly is the “theme” of our community? I suspect we don’t really have one, though we have plenty of choices. We were a “train town” during the first half of the last century. The railroad literally built Clovis from empty fields in the early 1900...
On this date ... 1946: The 35th Lions Club in New Mexico had been formed in Elida. Boyd Gregory had been selected president. W.J. Crume was named first vice-president. Charter night was scheduled June 11. The club was to meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays each month at 7:30 p.m. 1951: The Portales Milling Co. was fined $300 in federal court for “introducing adulterated and misbranded flour in interstate commerce,” records showed. Company officials pleaded not guilty to...
I’m told ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that can answer questions. So I gave it a try. Me: Who is David Stevens, publisher of The Eastern New Mexico News? ChatGPT: David Stevens is a journalist and the publisher of the Eastern New Mexico News, a daily newspaper based in Clovis, New Mexico. He has been with the newspaper since 1998 and has served as publisher since 2011. Fact check: The Eastern New Mexico News is not a daily paper. It publishes twice a week. I s...
My first thought: “I’m having a heart attack.” My second thought: “No, heart attacks hurt. This just kinda tickles. If I’m having a heart attack, I’m doing it wrong.” In the final analysis, I did not suffer a heart attack. I fell victim to a miller moth attack. I’m still not sure how that critter climbed inside my shirt without me noticing, but I do get distracted a lot during baseball season. After three or four flitter episodes, I realized the source of the problem and beg...
On this date ... 1937: About 50 area residents attended the quarterly meeting of the Eastern New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Speaker Richard Hindley, manager of the Clovis Evening News-Journal, told the crowd it needed to keep track of what was going on in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and be “adequately represented” at state meetings. “We shouldn’t get sore when we are left out if we don’t go to the meetings at which plans of statewide interest are laid,” Hindley said. Repre...
Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that could prevent taxing entities from funding projects that voters had already rejected. The bill is aimed at Amarillo, which in 2022 attempted to fund renovations to its Civic Center after voters said no to a similar plan just two years earlier. It’s a shame a law like that would need consideration. What kind of public officials would ask voters what they think, then make them fund the project anyway if they don’t like the answer? Oh,...
On this date ... 1951: Temperatures in the 80s a day earlier plummeted into the 40s and high winds produced “one of the season’s worst dust storms,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. While rain threatened the region, none was reported. 1956: Recreational shooting in the Roosevelt County sandhills left a Clovis man with a gunshot wound to his shoulder. James Bergen, who lived at 1017 Hull St., said he was helping one of his children fire a .22-caliber pistol when a stray bulle...
The lawsuit filed Thursday by former Eastern New Mexico University basketball players surprised no one within the Portales school’s leadership. Rumors had been circulating for weeks if not months before everything became public in 30 riveting pages filed in U.S. District Court. So why has ENMU been so slow in publicly addressing the situation? Our newspaper first filed a public information request with ENMU on March 27 asking for information about inappropriate university r...
An investigation into the Eastern New Mexico University women’s basketball program resulted in “no findings of an abusive nature,” according to a university statement Athletic Director Paul Weir provided The News on Tuesday. The statement also said the investigation was related to “the use of volunteer services” and there were no findings “that any ENMU employee forced student-athletes to seek volunteer services.” Weir said the statement was issued by the university in...
On this date ... 1901: Thomas Edward “Black Jack” Ketchum, described as the “most noted desperado of the Southwest” by the Galveston Daily News, was hanged in Clayton. Ketchum, a self-confessed train robber accused of multiple crimes including murder, was also a rancher near Tucumcari who rode on many trail drives. He was hanged for a failed train robbery in which no one was killed. They hung him so hard, the history books tell us, his head came off. The native Texan, who los...
First they came for Bullet Bob. Now the city of Clovis is after little ol’ ladies who can’t push a lawn mower. Violate city decrees, and you just might find yourself in front of a judge facing “fines, fees and possible jail time.” That’s what we learned at Thursday’s City Commission meeting. Bullet Bob Vilandry’s crime was posting signs at his collectibles store on Main Street. The signs asked motorists to reserve a couple of spaces for Vilandry’s customers who otherwise r...
On this date ... 1909: No document is known to exist that ties the naming of Clovis to the first Christian King of France. But a Clovis newspaper on this date made the claim in a poem, most likely written by Pony Post Editor Harry Armstrong. It ended like this: “Old Clovis has a namesake now — “A city in New Mexico, “A city of three thousand strong — “And founded scarce two years ago “One time two towns who rivaled her — “Melrose was one, and Texico — “Grew clamorous for...
Welcome to the publisher’s journal. The hardest part about starting this twice-weekly feature wasn’t deciding what to put in it, but what to call it. I thought about calling it a blog, but the target audience is not the world online. I thought about calling it a log, like the captain’s log that James T. Kirk kept on Star Trek. But again, I’m not wanting to talk to the universe – just the people who read this newspaper. I thought about calling it a diary. But I’m not sharing...
On this date ... 1950: Rex Ormon, a junior from Borger, was elected president of the student body at Eastern New Mexico University. Ormon succeeded Anderson Carter as president. He received 130 votes to 108 for Artesia senior Mickey McGuire and 93 for Royce Lowry, a junior from Shamrock. 1956: Williams & Son Motor Co., located at 800 Main St. in Clovis, claimed, “No other truck can offer you as much as a new 1956 GMC.” A newspaper ad reported all the new GMCs had a 12-...
On this date ... 1910: I.D. Johnson, 6, arrived in Clovis by train with his parents. “He learned to swim at a lake located on the corner of what is now 10th and Main Street,” his son, Bob Johnson wrote in a report for the history book “Curry County, New Mexico.” “He earned extra money by peddling empty beer and whiskey bottles back to the Free Coinage Bar (located in the 300 block on Main Street). This ambitious enterprise was brought to an abrupt halt by the newly elected c...
On this date ... 1945: The Portales Daily News offered the following in a front-page editorial mourning the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “The greatest blow that the nation has ever received was the announcement this afternoon of the death of President Roosevelt at Warm Springs, Georgia. ... The nation has lost its greatest citizen. The working man has lost a true friend.” 1946: Officials were warning Clovis-area residents they were serious about col...
On this date ... 1945: Tickets were available at Portales Drug for the upcoming “Benefit Variety Show” at the Portales High School Auditorium. Acts included a “boogie-woogie pianist” and a “famous escape artist.” Proceeds were to benefit the Clovis Air Base Hospital. Admission was 60 cents for adults, 30 cents for children. Organizers reported they cleared $240 from the event, despite the death of President Roosevelt on the day of the show. 1950: Roosevelt County reported it...
Today is a good day to remember Jesus of Nazareth, a carpenter and a king and a servant. If you don’t know the story, he was killed by a bunch of religious people about 2,000 years ago because they didn’t like what he had to say. Here’s the most important thing he had to say: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbo...
On this date ... 1939: Edmund Dillon was welcomed to the Kiwanis Club in Clovis when new members met at the Harvey House for their weekly luncheon. Burke Culpepper, a visiting evangelist from Memphis, Tenn., gave a “fine talk” about “the milk of human kindness,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. Dillon was the son of pioneer Clovis doctor A.L. Dillon and Dixie Morrow. The Dillon family donated the land where Plains Regional Medical Center is located today. 1960: Portales voter...
On this date ... 1955: Norma Smith, a senior at Eastern New Mexico University, was named Miss Portales over 20 other contestants. The Portales native was majoring in education and would represent the city at the Truth or Consequences Fiesta a week later. 1960: Portales defeated Causey, 17-14, in a high school baseball game at Portales’ Morrison Field. Shortstop Ronnie Hooper hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Rams to victory just as darkness s...
On this date ... 1941: The Curry County jail had no prisoners. Sheriff Bill Collins said it was the first time he’d been without prisoners to watch since he took office two years and three months earlier. Collins posed for a photo on the front page of the Clovis News-Journal with a sign on the jail door that read, “For rent.” 1946: Clovis’ Memorial Hospital had 19 newborns in its nursery. “Hospital attaches are thankful that their nursery has been enlarged, or they wouldn’t...
Small-town newspapers used to regularly publish photos of community leaders dressed in drag. Remember those? The mayor or a city councilor would put on a dress with high heels, stick out his hairy leg and encourage the audience to donate to a charity. Nobody worried about being labeled a sexual deviant. Everybody had a great laugh, and it was for a great cause. We don’t do that much anymore … laugh, that is. Nobody’s laughing about drag queens and kings anyway. The most unfun...
