Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 90
I collect historical tidbits that interest me from area newspapers. Here are a few from Januarys past: • Jan. 7, 1941: “Bales and bales of hay” had been moved into Clovis’ Armory for members of two National Guard units staying there. “The hay isn’t for horses, either — for there are no more since the old 111th Cavalry unit here was converted into an anti-aircraft unit of the 200th Coast Artillery,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. The hay was to “stuff the soldiers’ bed packs with,” CN-J reported. • Jan. 11, 1955: Seven gr...
Eastern New Mexico and our Texas neighbors have produced some of the world’s greatest athletes. Hank Baskett (2006-2010) and Jerry Nuzum (1948-1951) played pro football. Bubba Jennings was a major college basketball star (Naismith Award winner in 1985). Amber Campbell threw the hammer in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. But our best sport is rodeo. Sonny Davis, Glen Franklin, Charmayne James and Homer Pettigrew are among locals who’ve been inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. B.J. Pierce is a member of the National Cow...
Just 21, newly married, he wasn't quite 6-foot tall and he wasn't close to 150 pounds. Lane Frost loved riding bulls. The Pro Rodeo official media guide in 1985 gave us a glimpse of his passion for the sport. "My dad was still competing when I was about three," he told promoters for the guide. "Mom says I'd always fight to stay awake for the bull riding. And if we'd leave before that, I would really throw a fit." Frost finished eighth among bull riders in the 1984 National...
Three 12-year-old girls were putting air in their bicycle tires early that Sunday evening. Then the Texaco service station attendant told them they needed to leave. As they were riding away, a shot rang out. “Mr. Tapp got shot,” Kathy Wilkinson told a jury a few months later. Mr. Tapp was Grover Tapp, a 70-year-old painter and school janitor. His killer was Al Griffin, 36, who worked at the service station on American Boulevard in Muleshoe. The men may have been friends. Certainly they were friendly acquaintances. The tro...
On Dec. 28, 1950, the Clovis News-Journal's front page featured two noteworthy stories: the retirement of New Mexico Gov. Thomas Mabry and the death of a man who claimed he was Billy the Kid. Mabry should be remembered for many accomplishments in his 78 years on Earth. He was the state's 14th governor, serving two terms, and spent eight years as chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. He also started one of Clovis' first newspapers, the Clovis Journal in 1909, a...
The House Judiciary Committee on Friday adopted two articles of impeachment against President Trump, as expected. Republicans called it a kangaroo court, as expected. Even some Trump supporters agree it’s clear the president threatened to withhold defense aid to Ukraine unless Ukraine’s president investigated alleged corruption involving Joe Biden, who happens to be Trump’s political rival. Here’s what else is clear, which should be equally disturbing to every resident of these once-United States: • Trump did not actually...
Clovis was the happening place for Christmas shoppers 100 years ago today. That was the top story in The Clovis News on Dec. 11, 1919. “People have traveled a greater distance to trade at Clovis this fall than ever before,” the story read. “Clovis merchants report that they are having the finest holiday trade they have ever had.” The unnamed reporter saw “automobile after automobile leaving Clovis filled with newly wrapped bundles.” The newspaper offered several reasons for the economic boom, but the main reason was that “m...
I collect historical tidbits that interest me from area newspapers. Here are a few from Decembers past: • Dec. 1, 1971: Tucumcari District Attorney Vic Breen was shot to death outside his home by a mental patient Breen helped commit to the state hospital. • Dec. 1, 1915: The Clovis Woman’s Club appointed a sanitation committee to ensure the city’s livery stable was cleaned out twice a week. Club minutes also tell us, “Mrs. Anna Janes reported that the box supper will be December 8, proceeds of which will be used for the l...
We’re pretty sure the city of Clovis was named for a Frankish king named Clovis. There is no known documentation to prove this theory, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence. An Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe document in 1906 provided a proposed name for the west-bound railroad station closest to Texico. That name was Clovis, described as “an old French name.” In April 1907, railroad officials filed a Clovis townsite plat near the location of the station. Media first tied the name to the Frankish King Clovis. In 1909, T...
Curry County commissioners decided last week to withdraw from the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. Of course it’s complicated, but mostly it feels like another example of why you can’t trust government. Government doesn’t even trust government, based on what was said at Tuesday’s county meeting. County Commissioner Chet Spear on Tuesday repeatedly and disrespectfully referenced David Lansford as “mayor-chairman-chairman.” Spear’s point was that Lansford is the mayor of Clovis, the chairman of the water authority an...
Weather forecasters on Monday began warning about “two significant storm systems” expected to bring widespread rain — and possibly 40-mph winds — to eastern New Mexico today and Thursday. The phrase “significant storm systems” tends to attract our attention. If it doesn’t, it should. Our Chambers of Commerce are quick to point out our average daily temperature is 57 degrees and we have about 300 days of sunshine every year. But we are also famous for our extreme weather. Consider: • On Feb. 1, 1967, much of the region saw...
Carol Nash has a question. The Clovis woman perhaps best known as the pronouncer at local spelling bees for years is also the granddaughter of a Quay County newspaper publisher and a regional history fanatic. She wants to know which area communities still have evidence they were once part of a Los Angeles-to-New York aerial mail service that planned to establish itself in 1920. She has reason to believe San Jon had a landing field associated with the National Air Lines...
Of course you can fight City Hall. Clovis residents proved last week you can even win, sometimes. OK, let’s call it a moral victory. City commissioners, no doubt alarmed at the community outrage over another tax increase, came up with a plan that’s not quite so painful as the original. They still approved the tax hike to fund the development of the interim groundwater portion of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System. But only if the state and federal governments put their “skin in the game” too, meaning they produce...
Today is a good day to remember former Clovis Pioneers second baseman Phil Rizzo. Stay with me here. Washington Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo is front and center in the baseball world. That’s because of his old-school approach as an executive — he favors scouting over analytics — and his team’s World Series championship. One of Mike Rizzo’s favorite scouts is his father, Phil Rizzo, 89, a member of the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame. Today is a good day to remember Phil Rizzo because of all the attention...
Dear Clovis city commissioners, Please don’t rob us. We get it. This is for a really good cause — funding the development of the interim groundwater portion of the Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System. We can’t live without water. And we’re running out of water. So you think government needs to save us. But no matter what anyone thinks about the merits of big government and its need to “help,” you don’t have to save us by telling us to stick ’em up — hiking property taxes somewhere between $15 million and $35 million witho...
The World Series began this week in Houston with the Astros hosting the Washington Nationals. That makes today a good day to look at eastern New Mexico ballplayers who appeared in the Fall Classic. This won’t be a long story. The Baseball Almanac reports 29 Major League Baseball Players have been born in New Mexico. That list includes Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who was born and grew up in Albuquerque. But only four MLB players have been born in eastern New Mexico, and only two — Cody Ross and Vern Stephens — appea...
We’ve all heard the term before. Police sometimes use “exigent circumstances” as a reason to enter someone’s home without permission or a warrant. According to a legal definition cited in a 1984 court case, those are “circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that entry (or other relevant prompt action) was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of a suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforc...
Flames shot an estimated 100 feet in the air. Smoke could be seen 25 miles away. Firefighters had to watch out for falling power lines and for paint cans that “exploded and rocketed out of the main building,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. The worst fire in eastern New Mexico’s history is debatable, but the blaze that destroyed Eastern New Mexico Builders Supply 55 years ago this week has to be among the contenders. It began about 3 p.m. on Oct. 15, 1964, at 2410 Prince, where Burns Do It Center stands today. A “tras...
Audie Murphy was perhaps America’s greatest war hero and one of its most decorated soldiers. After World War II his fame grew through his acting career. He starred alongside James Stewart and Sandra Dee in movies that included “Night Passage” and “The Wild and the Innocent.” “To Hell and Back” is a book and movie based on Murphy’s war experiences. His story is well chronicled. What you might not know is how close he came to opening a business in Texico just weeks before his death. Born in Texas to a family of sharecroppers,...
Voters in Curry and Roosevelt counties are being asked whether alcohol sales should be permitted in the unincorporated areas of the counties. Let’s hope they approve. Yes votes don’t mean alcohol is good. Yes votes mean private business owners get to decide what’s best for their businesses. And we might even see a few more private businesses pop up around the region. The language on the Nov. 5 ballots will be the same in both counties: • Do residents wish to allow the sale, service and consumption of alcoholic beverag...
I collect historical tidbits that interest me from area newspapers. Here are a few from Octobers past: • Oct. 2, 1933: Coleman De Laney, a 26-year-old farmer, was shot and killed outside the post office in Grady. Officials said De Laney and his killer were armed and faced each other about 15 feet apart. Sheriff A.J. Bell said there had been “some trouble” between the men. One arrest was made but the Tucumcari Daily News did not report whether the suspect was convicted of any crime. • Oct. 3, 1983: Katherine Davalos Ortega...
The man's name was apparently Lopes. He seemed to have World War II ties to Company L, Second Division, Saipan, Tarawa, and Clovis, N.M. At least that's what was carved on the sheath of his knife, along with the words "My kiss is death." Joe Wolf, a Texas Hill Country collector of military memorabilia, said the U.S. Marine Corps knife has a blade that is sharpened on one edge only. "It's not a fighting knife," Wolf said. "It's certainly not a bayonet. It's for hacking the...
John Calvin for president. Our nation could use some leadership from a guy like the owner of the Casa Rondeña in Albuquerque. Calvin’s winery made news last week when it hosted a group of President Trump’s political supporters and — in response — a prominent Democrat called for a boycott of the business. Calvin’s response should make you proud to be an American. “We have been supporting anybody who wants to speak, anybody who wants to use our constitutional right for free speech ever since this place came to into being,...
RIO RANCHO - She saw diversity. She saw young people. Roosevelt County Republican Chairwoman Tina Dziuk saw hope for New Mexico. "Given the overreach by our current (governor's) administration, I think New Mexico might be right to go red," she said. Dziuk, president of White Rock Crushing road materials in Portales, was among an estimated 9,000 people crowded into the Santa Ana Star Center on Monday night for President Donald Trump's campaign rally. And she saw it up close...
She came to Clovis with her military family when she was 10 years old. In 1975, she graduated from Clovis High School before entering Eastern New Mexico University in Portales where she earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management. She kept a low public profile most of the next decade, raising children, before accepting a part-time administrative assistant position with United Way. She wasn’t ready for a full-time job, she would say years later, but soon enough it was ready for her. In September 1988, the local Uni...
