Pages past - June 3

On this date ...

1988: Former Dallas Cowboys football player Walt Garrison was in Clovis in his second profession, as a card-carrying member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys of America and a representative of United States Tobacco.

Garrison was representing U.S. Tobacco at a steer roping at the Curry County Mounted Patrol Arena when the Clovis News-Journal caught up with him for a photo and a feature.

Although Garrison had retired from professional football in 1974, he was still quizzed about his former team.

"They've had some problems the last three or four years," he said, "but hopefully they'll get them worked out."

1963: A Santa Fe Railroad switchman was knocked by lightning off a boxcar and onto the tracks under moving cars ... and lived to tell about it.

Joe Beum of Clovis said the last thing he remembered was a "big flash of light."

He had been on the brake platform between two rolling boxcars when lightning hit one car, and the surge passed through his body to the next car, throwing him to the tracks.

"Two more cars rolled over Beum as he lay unconscious and unaware of his peril and the miracle that it left him relatively unhurt," the Clovis News-Journal reported.

Hospital officials had labeled his condition as "good," but the newspaper reported his fellow railroaders considered his condition "miraculous."

Pages Past is compiled by Betty Williamson. Contact her at:

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