Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1943: The Clovis Army Air Force basketball team was looking for competition. Lt. George Pastor, the team’s coach, said they would play high school teams, independent teams or other service teams, home or away. They were coming off a 39-30 loss to Clovis High, but Pastor said his men had been practicing and would make a better showing in their next appearance.
1965: The Curry County Clerk’s office reported it issued 57 marriage licenses in January 1965. Only 45 marriage licenses were issued in January 1964.
1965: A suspect was arrested in the bloody burglary of Top Hat Auto Sales in Clovis. The suspect told police he accidentally shot himself with a gun he took from a drawer in the auto sales building at 2003 W. Seventh. Police said the building was “sprayed” with blood when they investigated a report of breaking and entering. The suspect was arrested after seeking medical care at Clovis Memorial Hospital.
1967: A Fort Sumner teenager was found shot on Dunn Avenue. He died soon after at De Baca General Hospital.
Investigators said they believe the wound to the 19-year-old’s head was self-inflicted.
A pistol was found close to the body.
1968: Debbie Kay Bilberry, 8, spent a day at the New Mexico State Capitol serving as a page for Senator R.C. “Ike” Morgan of Portales.
Debbie Kay, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ted Bilberry, formerly of Portales and currently of Santa Fe, had been a friend of Morgan since she was a toddler. She got to spend the day in the Round House helping deliver messages.
Morgan represented Roosevelt and Curry counties in the New Mexico Senate.
1970: Allsup’s 7-11 Stores in Clovis were open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Advertised specials included 69-cent donuts, plus a variety of hot-and-ready-to-eat meals of barbecued beef, ribs, chicken and hot links.
1975: Eastern New Mexico University was searching for a new president after the resignation of Charles Meister. The Portales university’s fourth president quit amid reports the university faced a deficit of more than $217,000. He’d been on the job since 1965.
1982: Public Works Director Wayne Bateman said Clovis roads had been sanded, salted and cleared by street department workers after heavy snow plagued the region in recent days.
Bateman said the city did not usually remove snow “unless it becomes so deep that it impedes traffic. ... Normally we try to leave the snow because it provides traction.”
Bateman said the city had one spreader and three graders to combat snow and ice-packed streets.
Clovis City Manager Ted Ryan said the graders “are not equipped with snow plows and have to be set up high enough off the asphalt so they do not tear the road.”
Bateman said 800 tons of sand and 4-5 tons of salt had been spread on city streets in the past week.
1988: Clovis police Sgt. Raymond Mondragon was named to New Mexico Gov. Garrey Carruthers’ Red Ribbon Commission, part of a campaign to combat substance abuse in the state.
Carruthers addressed the New Mexico Legislature the week before to announce his drug-free campaign.
New Mexico communities were invited to participate in a variety of activities themed around the red ribbon in an effort to raise awareness of what Carruthers said was “an increasingly severe problem of drug and alcohol abuse in our state.”
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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