Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1899: Evelina Twilla was an infant, having been born Nov. 19, 1899.
She was born in Tennessee, but her family settled in the Field community (west Curry County today) when she was about 8.
The pioneer settler wrote about her life’s experiences in 1956, including this tidbit about what teenagers used to do for mischief:
“(We) slipped out our mother’s coffee and smoked it,” she wrote. “We smoked cotton leaves, too, after the frost had come.”
Twilla married Homer Roach in 1917. Their oldest son was Lee Roach, who survived the Bataan Death March and three years as a prisoner of war.
Family members said Lee Roach lived the rest of his life like he was making up for lost time.
He loved old-time country music. The family went to Branson, Missouri, for 23 consecutive Octobers, and the Floyd Country Jamboree quickly became one of his favorite area events.
Evelina Twilla Roach died in 1974 at age 74.
Lee Roach died at age 92 in 2011.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens. Contact him at:
