Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1945: The Portales Daily News offered the following in a front-page editorial mourning the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
“The greatest blow that the nation has ever received was the announcement this afternoon of the death of President Roosevelt at Warm Springs, Georgia. ... The nation has lost its greatest citizen. The working man has lost a true friend.”
1946: Officials were warning Clovis-area residents they were serious about collecting fines from illegal parkers.
City commissioners reported only about 50% of the citations issued since parking meters were installed 18 days earlier had been acknowledged with payment.
The $1 citations would go up to $2, $3, $5, $10 or $50 if ignored, officials said.
1950: Roscoe Karl “Rock” Staubus, the Chandler, Okla., native who came to Clovis in 1924 to coach for the public school system, died from heart complications. He was 51.
Staubus was the school’s only coach when he arrived, finding “a locker room big enough for two men and two lockers,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
He was best known as a basketball coach — winning 14 consecutive district championships from 1927 to 1940 and taking the state title in 1930 — but he also coached football and other sports, and was an academic instructor as well as a school principal.
The Clovis High School gymnasium is named in his honor — Rock Staubus.
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.”
1960: Charles Hood, a junior journalism major at Eastern New Mexico University, had been named vice president of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Press Association, the Portales News-Tribune reported.
Hood was editor of the Chase, the ENMU student newspaper.
1960: Strong winds took out a one-mile stretch of electric poles south of Causey.
J. C. Bilberry said the poles were snapped by wind gusts “the hardest I’ve ever seen out of the south.”
Rural Electric association workers had power restored about six hours after the storm.
1960: Four people died and about 60 were injured when a tornado leveled the tiny Texas Panhandle community of Sunnyside, about 15 miles south of Dimmitt.
United Press International reported the twister demolished a church where 75 men were having a fellowship meeting. A community store was also destroyed, along with about six homes.
Two children “had their arms torn off,” UPI reported, and a woman was found with a board protruding from her back and her face “torn away.”
Another tornado injured three people in Friona. Tornadoes were also reported touched down near Amarillo and Muleshoe, but produced little damage.
1966: Portales police had rounded up a “ring” of 10 boys — age 10 to 15 — suspected in a series of bicycle thefts.
Police Chief Loyd Moore said the boys had apparently stolen about 30 bikes over two months, then dismantled them to create “mixed-breed” bikes.
Moore said the bikes were then sold or ridden by the suspects.
1969: Bids were being accepted on the “cloverleaf entrance project” at Cannon Air Force Base.
The planned new entrance was slated to include an overpass to alleviate traffic during peak flow.
A gatehouse, two bridges, paving and other alterations were planned for the entrance, which at the time was marked only with a caution traffic light.
1970: The Texico Volunteer Fire Department was preparing to host the Stamps Quartet in the auditorium of Texico High School.
Advance tickets were $1.50. Tickets at the door would be $2.
The Stamps Quartet, according to the Clovis News-Journal, was organized in 1924. It was “the first professional Gospel music quartet.”
1971: Clovis Postmaster Charles Stanfield learned Clovis would be included in a new program aimed at increasing the speed of mail delivery.
Clovis and seven other New Mexico cities were to be included on three air flights that operated daily between Albuquerque and Dallas.
“Stanfield indicated the Clovis mail received at the post office by 8 p.m. has a chance to be delivered the next day any place in the state,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Postmaster Gen. Wilton Blount told reporters in Washington: “This is the first time the postal service has ever stuck its neck out like this. It’s a very important first step on the road to improving service to the American people.”
1975: Drizzly, chilly weather failed to dampen the spirits of several hundred Clovis-area residents who watched and applauded and sang during ceremonies dedicating the city of Clovis as an official American Revolution Bicentennial city, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
The designation signified Clovis had “formally joined the nation’s bicentennial observance,” the newspaper reported.
Festivities planned outdoors were moved to the Clovis High School gym because of the wet weather.
1977: Clovis firefighters had responded to 11 calls for service in recent days.
Two fire trucks responded to a house fire on West Seventh Street. A bicycle seat left leaning against a furnace ignited and fire spread to the home. Minor damage was reported.
An old car caught fire as it was being cut up for scrap metal with a blowtorch. That happened five miles west of Clovis on U.S. 60/84.
Children playing with matches were blamed for setting fire to furniture that was being stored in a truck bed on Merriwether Street. Damage was described as minor.
A grass fire was also reported at Lawn Haven Memorial Cemetery. The only damage reported was to a fence.
1978: Mrs. Roy Franse’s fourth-grade class from Cameo Elementary was back in the classroom after a day serving as “victims” for a mock disaster drill for the staff of Memorial Hospital in Clovis.
The drill simulated an explosion at the elementary, with 26 students impersonating the injured for the hospital staff. Each child was given a card listing his or her “symptoms” and encouraged to ham it up with moans and groans appropriate to their pseudo-injuries as they were transported by ambulance to the hospital.
A Clovis News-Journal photographer captured two of the less-than-serious victims, fourth graders Jennifer Wood and her “brother” for the exercise, Lee Thomas, along with real life emergency room nurse Nelda McDonald.
1988: Firefighters were still at the scene of the smoldering remains of the Midway Dance Club on U.S. 70 between Portales and Clovis after a late-night fire had destroyed the building that was a fixture in the area for decades.
“It’s been here as long as I can remember,” said Portales Fire Chief Mike Miller. “It’s become sort of a landmark.”
Although no immediate dollar value was placed on the damage, the building was considered lost.
1992: Clovis police were preparing to institute a bicycle patrol. The program was designed “to put our officers in the community,” Capt. Bill Carey said.
“We want one-on-one contact with the community. It will also be used to work special projects, like in parks, the downtown area ...”
Officers Dewayne Williams and Frank Gutierrez would be the primary bike patrol officers, but police said they hoped to expand the program later in the year.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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