Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1957: The Long-Bell International Paper Company at 201 Pile in Clovis was having a penny sale — buy one roll of wallpaper at regular price and receive another roll of the same paper for a penny.
Patterns that included “rich, modern colors,” ranged in price from 27 cents to 82 cents per roll.
1960: Clovis Municipal Schools had plans to build a new elementary school in hopes of alleviating overcrowding at Highland Elementary.
The W. R. Bauske construction firm submitted the low bid for the project at $114,245.
The six-classroom unit was to include a principal’s office and would be heated with natural gas.
School board members had decided to name the new school Sandia Elementary.
Ed McCready, a teacher at Highland, was selected as Sandia’s first principal.
1963: Clovis was benefiting from a “price war” among gasoline distributors, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
One independent retailer was selling gas for 19.9 cents per gallon, about 9 cents less than the region’s average.
The price war had been going on a few weeks, but the newspaper reported this was the first time gas was selling for less than 20 cents per gallon in some time.
1963: Cannon Air Force Base had received its first enlisted Women’s Air Force member since the base had been reactivated in 1951, Cannon reported.
Airman 3rd Class Bonnie K. Dorman, 18, came from Amarillo’s air base where she had been trained as an administrative specialist. At Cannon, she was assigned to a clerk-typist role.
1967: Clovis’ new post office was open at Fourth and Gidding streets.
Postmaster Charlie Stanfield said lines had been steady and long as customers signed up to obtain keys to boxes.
The federal building also housed Selective Services, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Housing Administration, along with recruiters for the Navy and Marines.
1969: Winston Cox, coordinator of programs at Eastern New Mexico University, had been named to “Who’s Who in the West,” a biographical reference publication.
Cox, who came to ENMU in August 1968 from New Mexico State University, was previously editor for New Mexico Magazine.
1972: Col. Richard E. Little had assumed command of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing at Cannon Air Force Base, succeeding Col. Charles E. Francis.
Little began his career as an aviation cadet in 1949. He flew 101 combat missions during the Korean conflict.
1973: A Farwell man was among prisoners of war slated to return home soon. Lt. Col. Robert James Sandvick had been held in a POW camp in North Vietnam, officials at Cannon Air Force Base reported.
Sandvick had been stationed at Cannon before being deployed to Vietnam. He had been a prisoner since his plane was shot down in the summer of 1966.
1975: Clovis TV Center at 10th and Main promoted itself as “a business, not a sideline.” A newspaper ad reported, “We have the experts for fast, courteous service.”
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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