Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1951: John Smallwood of Haileyville, Okla., had been selected “the most eligible bachelor” on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University.
The Kappa Delta Alpha sorority selected Smallwood for the honor at its White Rose dance.
1955: Gov. John Simms announced he would not sign a bill that would have built a youth reformatory in Quay County. Simms cited cost as his primary concern. The proposed institution’s price tag was $650,000.
1956: Jimmy Allman of Clovis had won the right to operate the concession stand at Bell Park during baseball games.
His bid, not reported by the Clovis News-Journal, was accepted over bids from two competitors.
1960: Portales National Bank reported it had deposits totaling more than $4 million. Douglas Stone was bank president. Directors were Lewis Cooper, Frances Hatch, T.E. Mears, T.E. Mears Jr., and Stone.
1960: Lions Clubs in Portales and Elida were preparing to celebrate the opening of a new gym at Elida High School. Both clubs had formed basketball teams and would play each other at the gym’s dedication on March 24. Players included Bill Tinsley, Pete Jones, Pat Patterson and B.B. Lees.
1962: A reluctant Clovis city commission voted to accept federal tax dollars to help build a new sewer trunk line and treatment plant.
Commissioners John Russell and Barney Barnard said they wanted to be on record that they voted to accept the money but weren’t happy about it.
The sewage work was expected to cost $314,300 with $94,500 coming from the federal Public Health Service.
One reason the city needed the work was to allow Swift & Co. packing plant to build a facility in Clovis.
“Just to keep the record straight,” Barnard said, “we are not against the Swift & Co. plant coming in, only against the way in which the sewer expansion is to be built.”
1967: Wayne Hallmark, an all-state wingback from Clovis High School, had been named to the High School All-American football team by Coach and Athlete magazine.
The team was selected by high school coaches, college recruiters, sports writers and broadcasters from across the country.
Hallmark was also a standout basketball player and had been named senior class favorite.
He was being recruited to play college football at Oklahoma State University, Eastern New Mexico University and others.
He was the third Clovis High player named to an all-America team under coach Steve Graham.
1968: Mrs. Max Hobbs of Portales narrated a spring style show for the Elida Women’s Club, showing off fashions for 1968 from a Portales “ready to wear” shop.
The models - Mrs. Jim Love, Mrs. Lewis Cooper, Mrs. Berlin Barnard, Mrs. Richard Lambirth, and Mrs. Dab McDowell - appeared on stage one by one, first looking through a picture frame, then walking among wrought iron screens decorated with flowers.
The quartet tables were decorated with white scalloped paper, and each table held a single jonquil topped with a miniature spring hat.
1970: Officials were estimating a weekend fire in the Grady school gymnasium had caused about $4,000 in smoke damage.
Repair work started the day after the fire was out “to get the students back into the gym as quickly as possible,” said school Superintendent Leck Jones.
Jones said the fire was probably started by accident. Foam rubber placed near a wall heater was the likely culprit.
1975: Medical reports showed two Iranian students attending Eastern New Mexico University died March 13 from carbon monoxide poisoning. Seyed Moshen Ariarad, 31, and Ebrahim Karimi, 27, were found dead on the bedroom floor of Karimi’s home at 1519 W. 17th St. in Portales.
Officials said a friend found them earlier passed out on the floor in the living room, thought they were drunk, and summoned more friends to move them to the bedroom. The graduate students were found dead eight hours later.
Tests showed “a concentration of carbon monoxide” was found in Karimi’s car, and officials theorized that may have been the source of the poisoning. Their bodies were being flown to Tehran, Iran.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
