Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Pages-past
On this date …
1976: Gail Shannon, former acting president and vice president for academic affairs at Eastern New Mexico University, had accepted a position as dean of the college of education at West Texas State University.
The Kansas native had been at ENMU since 1960.
1961: Actor Ronald Reagan spent about an hour in Hotel Clovis during a Santa Fe train layover, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Reagan, on his way home to California after a speaking engagement in Lubbock, told CNJ that communists were trying to grip control of the movie industry.
The future president also had harsh words for California Gov. Edmond “Pat” Brown. “A ticket with no governor is better than having him re-elected in the 1962 election,” Reagan said.
Reagan said he would not run against Brown. “I might enjoy the campaigning, but not being governor,” he said.
Brown, a Democrat, was re-elected in 1962. Reagan was elected California governor in 1966 and served two terms.
CNJ staff member Dave Molina snapped a photo of Reagan reading a newspaper in the Hotel Clovis lobby. It appeared on the front page of the paper.
1961: Nine people had been killed in a two-vehicle accident at a farm road intersection east of Lubbock.
A Lubbock service station owner, his wife, six of their children and a family friend all died in the crash. One other person was in critical condition at Lubbock’s Methodist Hospital this morning, and not expected to live.
An airman from Reese Air Force Base was also hospitalized but expected to live.
Officials said the Lubbock family’s car ran a stop sign and pulled out in front of the airman.
Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:
