Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 887
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...
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...
On this date … 1914: Model Grocery in Clovis advertised pie peaches for 10 cents per can, 20 bars of soap for $1 and 12 pounds of sugar for $1. 1933: New Mexico Gov. Arthur Seligman died and Andy Hockenhull, a Clovis lawyer, banker and Central Baptist Church Sunday school teacher, was appointed his successor. Hockenhull, 56, had been the state’s lieutenant governor. Seligman died after complaining of a sharp pain in his chest, just minutes after speaking at a state banker’s convention, The Associated Press reported. 1941:...
On this date ... 1910: Miller & Luikart, a Portales dry goods store, offered men’s black derby hats for $3. 1931: Pearson Valley school 26 miles west of Portales was wrecked for the second time in two weeks. Teacher Ruth Isham opened the school to find desks crashed to splinters, blackboards demolished and school records torn to bits and scattered over the floor, the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. 1941: De Baca County homes were being evacuated and broomcorn farmers feared heavy crop losses after torrential rains f...
Clovis native Bud Kingston first had the idea 25 years ago, but his work as a cowboy got in the way and he had to put it off. Last week, he completed his dream of traveling horseback across New Mexico, raising money for abandoned and abused horses at the same time. Kingston, 65, and his 4-year-old mare Roja began their journey Aug. 31 at the New Mexico border outside Springerville, Ariz. They wrapped up Saturday in Texico after 15 days and 432 miles. Along the way they raised...
On this date ... 1946: Almost every Portales business had plans to close its doors for a city-wide cleanup planned the following Thursday. “Only postage stamps will be for sale,” area media reported. The Portales City Council was encouraging everyone volunteer to help clean up the town and had drawn up an ordinance that would increase garbage collection fees and require health inspections of cow lots, chicken pens and open toilets. 1947: Clovis Police Chief Nelson Worley, Officer Herschel Pendley and City Hall Janitor Cha...
On this date ... 1915: Area drug stores advertised Doan’s Kidney Pills, a “tested and proven remedy” for kidney and bladder problems. They were 50 cents per bottle. 1951: Eastern New Mexico residents scrambled to dig out their coats and sweaters as temperatures dropped 35 degrees in 24 hours. Winds were clocked at 23 mph, with 30 mph gusts, as temperatures fell from the low 80s to the mid-40s. Weather forecasters were predicting lows in the upper 30s over the next day or two, but said there was little danger of a freez...
On this date ... 1923: Jerry “Bruiser” Nuzum was born in Clovis. The son of Mr. and Mrs. W. N. Nuzum became the first Clovis High School graduate to play in the National Football League. The halfback spent four seasons — 1948-1951 – with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He died in 1997, at age 73. 1952: The Clovis Mattress company was featured in the business review section of the Clovis News-Journal, and noted for having the only felting machine in the city. "The felting machine felts cotton giving you a mattress free from lumps a...
The Agricultural Science Centers at Clovis and Tucumcari have released their weather statistics for August. The numbers show it was hot, hot, hot. In Clovis, the average high was 95 degrees with four days topping out at 100 or more. The hottest day was 103 on Aug. 23. Twenty days in August hit 95 or more. Think that's warm? Tucumcari says, "Hold my iced lemonade." The ag center in Tucumcari reported an average high of 100 degrees for August. It recorded 16 days of temperatures hitting 100 degrees or more. The high for the...
On this date ... 1914: The Barbara Worth Hotel in San Diego advertised “A room with a bath for a dollar” in The Clovis Journal. 1941: Portales city officials were making plans for a Sept. 12 statewide blackout. About 80 “special police” were appointed to help organize the civilian defense drill in which all lights were to be shut off and windows covered. The drill was mandatory across New Mexico because military leaders considered border states “of strategic importance from the standpoint of an invasion possibili...
Government officials are supposed to work for us. It’s frustrating when they put effort into keeping us out of their meetings. Consider recent action taken by Clovis Municipal Schools and the Portales City Council. Clovis’ school board has decided to fight back against a new state law requiring video webcasting of its public meetings. Oh, you can watch on your home computer as the law requires, but CMS has decided it needs to see you, too. Turn your camera off or step away from view and school officials will boot you out of t...
On this date ... 1918: Workers were just about finished paving the north end of Clovis’ Main Street, between Fourth and Eighth streets, with bricks that remain today. A Plainview company did the work after a winning bid of $32,846.20, the Clovis News-Journal reported. 1936: A convicted Clovis rapist’s home was destroyed in a fire while he awaited transport to the state penitentiary. Curly Reynolds had lived at 204 Edwards St. in a small adobe house. Neighbors alerted firefighters to the blaze. Reynolds had pleaded guilty to s...
On this date ... 1910: The Roosevelt County Herald readers learned 2,000 “of those special lemonades” had been created in a week at the Dobbs Confectionery — a record. “Better get in for one or more early in the week in order to avoid the rush,” the newspaper ad claimed. 1941: The Clovis News-Journal asked area judges about the strangest wedding ceremonies they had performed. Justice of the Peace W. E. McConnell said he married a couple on horseback at a riding academy and married a couple at the county jail just before th...
Eastern European native Stefaniya Yanez is a "huge Swiftie" loving life in her adopted country. The Eastern New Mexico News associate shared thoughts about war in her homeland, smiling strangers and other things she cares about. Q: So you were born in Russia and later lived in Ukraine, right? What do you remember about those days and how old were you when you left for the U.S.? A: The opposite actually. I was born in Ukraine, (Yalta, Crimea to be more specific) and then that a...
On this date ... 1939: John Sparks, the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Sparks, had learned a valuable lesson about riding his bike alongside a car. The boy was riding to the Portales swimming pool alongside a car driven by his friend Billie Kenyon when the bicycle “dumped him underneath the car,” according to the Portales Daily News. “His arm was run over,” the paper reported. Fortunately, both boys were Boy Scouts and they used their first-aid skills to stop the flow of blood from John’s arm. He was rushed to the Portales hospital...
A Clovis man previously convicted of harassing public officials was charged Monday with 10 counts of extortion and 21 counts of stalking some of those same officials. Michael McKinney, 47, also was indicted Friday by a Clovis grand jury on charges he tried to terrify, intimidate or harass state Rep. Andrea Reeb and others. District Attorney Quentin Ray said McKinney was arrested in Thurston County, Wash., where he is being held by authorities until he can be extradited to...
On this date ... 1905: A post office was established at Tolar in Roosevelt County. It closed April 5, 1946, according to a study by L. Keith Payne, less than two years after a train carrying 46 tons of military explosives leveled or caused major damage to nearly every building in town when it blew up. 1916: Portales was preparing for its annual city picnic, with 2,000 people expected to attend. The Clovis Ladies’ Band was scheduled to kick things off with music at 10 a.m., followed by a few short speeches and then more m...
Clovis Police Chief Roy Rice is facing harsh criticism for his handling of criminal allegations against a former cop. From here, it looks like Rice is not the only one to blame for justice delayed. The trouble began in February 2023 when a burglary suspect told Clovis police investigators she “knew some information about a cop who was providing her with information and drugs,” court records show. Eighteen months later, that Clovis police officer, Frank Careri, was arrested on charges that include drug trafficking and acc...
