Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Pages-past
On this date ...
1951: A Clovis restaurant owner was killed in a single-vehicle crash west of Fort Sumner.
Stan E. Durkee, owner of The Aristocrat at 521 W. Seventh, was alone in his 1947 model car, apparently going too fast and failed to make a turn, police said.
News accounts did not explain how Durkee died; officials said he was alive when placed in a Julian Mortuary ambulance, but dead on arrival at the Fort Sumner hospital.
He was 49.
1946: A Taiban package store clerk had been shot in the arm during a robbery.
G.P. Hendricks, 74, told police the H & R package store was closed but he opened it because he recognized a name provided by one of the two men who knocked on the door.
He said the men were strangers to him, but gave no indication they intended to rob him until he went to the cash drawer to make change after they purchased a pint of whiskey.
Hendricks said three shots were fired by the men and one shot hit him in the right arm.
Hendricks said he then grabbed a pistol and returned fire as the men ran out the door, jumped in their car and headed toward Clovis.
The Clovis News-Journal did not report whether the robbers received any money.
1941: New Mexico’s attorney general ruled that all pinball machines were illegal gambling devices.
E. P. Chase issued the ruling following a request from Valencia County Sheriff Joseph Tondre.
“By the word ‘all,’ I mean all pinball machines which compensate the player either in amusement, United States coin, slugs or tokens, or in ‘free games,’” Chase said.
Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:
