Pages Past — Oct. 3

On this date …

1964: Clovis Attorney Wesley Quinn, 57, was elected first vice president of the New Mexico Bar Association. Quinn, a World War II Navy veteran, served on several community boards and was past president of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. His son, Steve, is a district judge in Clovis today.

1954: Two men slipped into Clovis’ Safeway grocery through an air vent about 4 a.m., then waited to rob the assistant manager and a produce clerk when they arrived to open for business at 7:30. The robbers were captured a day later with $1,094.69 — one penny less than store officials said was missing. The men, armed with a gun and butcher knife, tied up the store’s two employees, locked a customer in a spice rack and “showed kindness” to a 7-year-old boy who’d come into the store to buy eggs, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Danny Ray Gear, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Gear of 913 E. 10th, was allowed to run to his mother, who was waiting in the parking lot, as the robbers escaped on foot. Danny told his mother about the incident, but she did not believe him, the paper reported. Another early-arriving customer found the employees tied up and freed them about 10 minutes after the holdup. Police were tipped to the robbers’ whereabouts by Bud Winters, who lived four miles from town on East Seventh. He called police after they stopped at his house and attempted to buy cigarettes. Two Vernon, Texas, men, pleaded guilty to the robbery and were sentenced to 5-7 years in prison on Oct. 20.

1951: Two Amarillo smelter workers were charged with murder in the beating death of Josh Blocher, a Progress hermit. Robbery was the motive in the slaying, but Bailey County Sheriff Hugh Freeman said the suspects found only 13 cents in the 85-year-old man’s wallet. Thomas Livesay and Lester Stevens were both convicted of the killing.

Price check …

1959: KD’s Discount House, at 116 E. Sixth in Clovis, offered Winchester-brand rifle shells for 58 cents, transistor radios for $19.95 and 20-pack packages of Wrigley’s gum for 49 cents.

Quotable …

1937: “No thanks. I can always protect myself by singing ‘Love in Bloom.’” — Comedian Jack Benny, asked if he’d follow an International Association for Identification suggestion that film stars be fingerprinted for identification protection in possible kidnap and extortion cases.

Pages Past is compiled by Clovis News Journal Editor David Stevens. Contact him at:

[email protected]