Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
I collect tidbits that interest me from area newspapers.
Here are a few from Aprils past:
• April 3, 1945: Bill Vance of Portales announced his dog, Buzz, had been poisoned and he would pay $25 reward if someone could identify the perpetrator. Two other dogs had also been recently poisoned in Portales, including “the dog of the little crippled children of the Colby family.”
• April 12, 1955: Two Portales service stations were burglarized, but the criminals had little to show for their efforts. University Service Station reported it lost a box of cigars, a flashlight, some batteries and about $2 cash. The Shamrock station on the Lovington highway reported the only thing taken was a check for $1.25 that had been returned by the bank with a notation reading, “No account.”
• April 13, 1899: David Blanton & Son, of Fort Sumner, had traded their stock of goods to Hughes Brothers, of Portales, for 2,400 head of sheep and two ranches near Portales and Tierra Blanca.
• April 14, 1960: Portales Recreation Director Gaylen Stephenson announced, “This year, every boy who comes out for little league will get to play.” The Portales News-Tribune reported 109 young baseball players were not allowed to play in 1959. Stephenson said a cigarette tax funded youth sports in the community and needed to offer opportunity to all age groups and multiple sports, including girls.
• April 20-23, 1950: Pep residents were preparing for their first rabbit drive of the year. “The ladies of the community will serve lunch at noon, and shotgun ammunition for all gauges will be on hand at cost,” The Portales Daily News reported. Organizer W.R. Boone said it rained the last time the Pep community came together to thin out the jackrabbits. He was hoping this month’s drive would be conducted in the mud again.
• April 20, 1965: Porter Randolph of Tucumcari posed for a photo with a 62-inch long rattlesnake he said he caught and killed at Ute Lake. Randolph said the snake had 14 rattlers and was “one of the largest” he had seen in Quay County.
• April 21, 1955: Roosevelt County Sheriff P. F. Turner reported three dogs killed 30 chickens in a hen house at the western edge of Portales. Farm owner Jim Wade said the dogs killed the chickens but did not eat them; they ran away when Wade began pursuit.
• April 21, 1960: The P&M Broom Co. on the Lovington highway outside Portales was producing 17 to 20 dozen brooms per day, the Portales News-Tribune reported. It could make four dozen whisk brooms in an hour.
• April 24, 1950: Clovis Police Chief George Ray was dismissed by the Clovis city commission. The action came in the wake of dismissal of a radio operator who allegedly had been drinking before reporting for duty, driving a police car for personal use and allowing his girlfriend to visit him in the office, against regulations.
• April 25, 1950: Burglars took about $800 in cash and checks from the Fort Sumner Lumber Co. Police said the door of the office safe had been blown off.
• April 25, 1938: Gene Autry performed at Clovis’ Lyceum and Mesa theaters. The Clovis newspaper did not review Autry’s performance, but did report that Autry received a traffic citation while he was in town, for overtime parking. Autry’s parents — Delbert and Elnora Autry — lived in Clovis in the 1930s.
• April 26, 1960: A Portales News-Tribune reporter counted 129 bicycles parked at the city’s three grade schools and junior high. Dave Thornton, reporting on Bicycle Safety Week, found that 29 of the bikes had lights and none of the lights he tested worked. He found many of the bikes had broken pedals, needed chain guards or fenders and lacked horns.
David Stevens writes about regional history for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:
