Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Pages-past
On this date …link
1919: Hubert Bell, son of a prominent Clovis real estate dealer, drowned at Dutchman’s Lake, about a mile north of Clovis’ city limits.
Historian Don McAlavy reported Hubert, 12, had gone downtown to see an Army tank on display. After looking at the tank, Hubert and friends ran a few races and then decided to go swimming at the lake now known as Greene Acres.
McAlavy reported the boy sank in the water for no known reason.
His friends, wading on the shore, were apparently unable to swim but ran for help. By the time George Bell arrived and pulled his brother out of the water, Hubert had drowned.
Witnesses to the drowning included I.D. Johnson, who grew up to be a Clovis and Portales dentist.
That’s entertainment …
1965: The Odeon Theatre in Tucumcari was showing Walt Disney’s “Those Calloways” for three consecutive days.
“Together,” a newspaper promotional ad read, “they laughed, loved and fought for a dream as big as the sky!”
The movie starred Brandon DeWilde, Walter Brennan and Vera Miles.
Transitions …
2012: Thomas Austin Preston Jr. — “Amarillo Slim” — died in Amarillo at age 83. The professional gambler who won the World Series of Poker in 1972 was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992.
1998: Actress Mary Ann Castle died in Palm Springs, California, at age 67. The Texas Panhandle native — born in Pampa in 1931 — made appearances in “Gunsmoke” and “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” but was perhaps best known as a Rita Hayworth lookalike.
1908: Science fiction writer Jack Willliamson was born in Bisbee, Arizona. His family arrived in eastern New Mexico in 1915, where he lived most of the remainder of his 98 years. He authored more than 30 novels and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, which also includes Gene Roddenberry, Rod Serling, Steven Spielberg and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Pages Past is compiled by Clovis Media Inc. Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:
