Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1937: About 50 area residents attended the quarterly meeting of the Eastern New Mexico Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker Richard Hindley, manager of the Clovis Evening News-Journal, told the crowd it needed to keep track of what was going on in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and be “adequately represented” at state meetings.
“We shouldn’t get sore when we are left out if we don’t go to the meetings at which plans of statewide interest are laid,” Hindley said.
Representatives of Hobbs, Carlsbad, Roswell, Artesia, Tatum, Lovington, Portales and Clovis attended the ENM Chamber meeting. The Tucumcari chamber sent its regrets by telegram.
1945: Area residents learned of the death of Capt. J. Laverne Nicklas of Dora.
He was serving with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army when he was killed in action in Germany on April 16, The Portales Daily News reported. He was killed by a sniper and buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery.
His original grave marker read, “Laverne J. Nicklas,” but was changed to “J. Laverne Nicklas” in 2014 after a World War II researcher discovered the error.
1956: The blood bank at Clovis Memorial Hospital was full after 50 men from the 312th Air Base Group at Clovis Air Force Base donated a pint each.
The airmen responded after hospital officials received little response to their initial pleas for help.
Brig. Gen. William Momyer selected three officers to organize a campaign for the blood donations.
1962: Zeta Tau Alpha national fraternity had initiated 75 new members into Delta Pi chapter at Eastern New Mexico University.
Officers installed by the new fraternity were Sandra Ozment, Roswell, as president; Sandra Booker, Birmingham, Ala., vice-president; Loretta King, Clovis, secretary; Beth Lemons, Hereford, treasurer; Pat Gardner, Causey, historian-reporter; and Katie Medlin, Hobbs, ritual chairman.
1965: George Maddox, chief of Clovis’ inspectional section, had submitted his resignation to accept a job with the Federal Housing Administration.
Maddox had been with the city 32 years.
He would remain in Clovis with the FHA position, working under direction of state FHA Director Roy S. Walker.
Maddox, his wife and three children lived at 121 Sunland.
1970: An estimated 20,000 people attended an open house at Cannon Air Force Base, highlighted by the Thunderbirds’ aerial demonstration team.
The Thunderbirds brought seven planes to the show. Precision parachuting teams complemented the aircraft.
1971: Four Portales boys had been found dead in their closed camper at a campground near Pecos in Miguel County.
Police said the boys were apparently asphyxiated by butane gas in the camper.
The victims were identified as David Wayne Owen, 10, his brother Steven Owen Jr., 12, David Lockard, 9, and Glenn Leonard Burton, 10.
Officials said they were on a weekend church camping trip with three girls and a chaperoning couple.
1973: Music lovers could look forward to buying top 40 hits on 45 RPM records for 50 cents each at an upcoming “moonlight madness” sale at local Alco stores. A Snoopy battery-powered toothbrush was a steal for $6.97.
A walnut-finish recipe lectern — “Ideal gift for the gal who loves to cook” — could be snagged for only a dollar, complete with divider cards and 50 blank recipe cards.
1975: A Roosevelt County grand jury had criticized Portales city officials for the way they conducted a liquor option election a month earlier.
While the grand jury returned no indictments, it questioned “inconsistent instructions to poll watchers” and recommended the city clerk require proof of city residency when registering voters in the future.
Voters approved the legal sale of liquor in Portales for the first time since April 1917. The vote was 2,123 to 1,920.
1976: A Portales man was being described as a hero after he saved a 13-year-old Clovis boy from drowning at Dennis Chavez Lake.
Russell Burns, 13, and a friend were attempting to ride a Styrofoam raft on the pond when Russell fell in.
Gene Garcia, visiting from Portales, saw the accident and went to the boy’s aid.
“He deserves a citation from the city,” said Clovis Police Officer Frank Chadwick, who investigated the accident.
1983: Toney Anaya made his first official visit to Clovis since being sworn in as governor of New Mexico on Jan. 1.
Anaya was in town to serve as guest speaker of the spring meeting of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce, but also used the visit as an opportunity to announce the appointment of Clovis resident Bob Lydick to serve on the state board of educational finance.
“I had no idea he was going to make the appointment,” Lydick said. “It was a surprise.”
Anaya said Lydick was the first of several appointments he planned to ensure that eastern New Mexico had “a daily voice in Santa Fe.”
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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