That time Audie Murphy had business in town

Audie Murphy was perhaps America’s greatest war hero and one of its most decorated soldiers.

After World War II his fame grew through his acting career. He starred alongside James Stewart and Sandra Dee in movies that included “Night Passage” and “The Wild and the Innocent.”

“To Hell and Back” is a book and movie based on Murphy’s war experiences.

His story is well chronicled. What you might not know is how close he came to opening a business in Texico just weeks before his death.

Born in Texas to a family of sharecroppers, Murphy grew up picking cotton and dropped out of school in the fifth grade. He became skilled with a rifle as a boy and often killed game for the family’s meals.

Murphy’s sister provided an affidavit that falsified his birth date, allowing him to join the Army two weeks after his 17th birthday. He earned every U.S. military combat award for valor that the Army offered. He was credited with killing, wounding or capturing 240 Germans during three years of combat.

Murphy wanted to make the military a career, but the multiple wounds he received in battle forced him out of the service. He suffered from “battle fatigue” and “shell shock” after his discharge, sleeping with a loaded pistol under his pillow, and suffering addiction to sleeping pills in attempts to avoid nightmares about the war.

Actor Jimmy Cagney encouraged him to make movies. Murphy’s film credits totaled more than 40. But he soon grew weary of the industry, telling reporters Hollywood was “full of phonies” and blaming it for the breakup of his marriage.

All well chronicled through newspaper reports.

Not so well known: He wanted to open a business in Texico that would have employed more than 100 people.

Murphy’s death in a plane crash in 1971 came just two weeks after he’d visited eastern New Mexico and negotiated plans for American Western Plastics to be relocated to Texico from Denver.

It’s not clear why Murphy and retired astronaut Gordon Cooper chose Texico as the site for their company to make plastic pipes, bottles and bags, but media reports in Clovis and Texico made it clear they were serious.

The State Line Tribune published a photo of Murphy shaking hands with Clovis banker Lee Guthrie, who predicted $2 million in sales for the company. The Clovis News-Journal reported Murphy was in the region May 14, 1971, to finalize the deal.

But it never reached fruition because Murphy died May 28, 1971, when a private plane in which he was a passenger crashed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The pilot and four others also died in the crash, blamed on foggy conditions with near-zero visibility.

No one was ever hired to work at the proposed Texico plastics plant. The company’s assets were sold at auction early in 1972.

There is no particular reason to remember Audie Murphy today, but really any day is a good day to honor the veteran, actor and entrepreneur whose life should long be remembered.

David Stevens writes about regional history for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]