Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1914: Portales wrapped up a record-setting month for rainfall that stands today.
The city saw 12.67 inches of rain during May.
The other 11 months of 1914, combined, saw 10.97 inches of rain in Portales, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.
1930: Actor Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco.
He became a household name for his role as Rowdy Yates in the TV series "Rawhide," which aired from 1959 through 1965.
The "Rawhide" crew filmed for six weeks in 1959 in Tucumcari. The community hosts an annual gathering remembering Eastwood and other cast members, including Tucumcari native Paul Brinegar, who played a chuckwagon cook.
1937: "Thousands" of visitors were expected in Clovis for the Pioneer Days celebration, according to the Clovis Evening News-Journal.
Officials had planned two parades in addition to a rodeo and pageant competition.
Organizers said recent rains would not negatively impact scheduled events.
1941: Donald W. MacKay resigned as the first president at Eastern New Mexico College.
He had held the job since 1934.
Successor Floyd Golden was Eastern’s longest-serving president — from 1942 to 1960.
1956: Eastern New Mexico University had announced plans to graduate a record number of students — 129, including those with master’s degrees.
Commencement speaker was Highlands University President Thomas Donnelly.
1961: A tornado north of Lovington had destroyed several farm buildings, while cowboys near Las Vegas, New Mexico, had been struck by lightning as severe storms rolled through the state overnight.
Closer to home, gentle rain fell and some farmers’ crops received hail damage.
Melrose received the best rainfall total — more than 6/10ths of an inch.
1970: Jack Daniels was asking for support in eastern New Mexico’s primary election.
“... The only way I’ll be elected governor is if you, a registered Democrat, on June 2nd, cast your vote for a moderate Democrat without a political machine who offers New Mexico new ideas and a new image,” he wrote in a paid newspaper ad.
Daniels lost to Bruce King, who defeated Republican opponent Pete Domenici in November.
1970: “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” was headed for the State Theater in Clovis. The sequel to “Planet of the Apes” was rated for general audiences.
Other local movies included:
• “Bloody Mama,” the incredible saga of Ma Barker, at the La Fonda.
• “A Man Called Horse” at the Lyceum. Tickets for adults were $1.25. Student tickets were $1.
• “The Lawyer” followed by “Riot” at the Yucca.
1971: Civil Air Patrol planes searched the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills in Virginia for a missing private plane carrying actor Audie Murphy that had disappeared three days earlier.
Murphy, World War II’s most decorated American soldier, and four others disappeared on a business flight from Atlanta.
All were found dead later in the day.
Murphy had been in eastern New Mexico two weeks earlier, negotiating an agreement with a plastics manufacturing operation he wanted to open in Texico.
American Western was expected to hire 100 to 115 workers, but officials said none were ever hired and the company’s assets were sold at auction early in 1972.
1983: Les Leatherwood, 7, and his sister Lisha, 3, were signed up to compete in the Little Buckaroos Rodeo, the first event of the 1983 Curry County Pioneer Days festivities.
They were photographed by the Clovis News-Journal with their dad, Dusty Leatherwood, as Wilma Fulgham, one of the rodeo coordinators, helped fill out entry forms.
The Little Buckaroo competition was limited to kids 12 and younger. Scheduled events included stick horse races, goat ribbon races, horse flag races, and a mother/daughter relay.
1988: A torrential overnight storm brought twisters, golf-ball-sized hail and up to 6 inches of rain to eastern New Mexico, leaving behind flood waters that drowned a Clovis man in the early morning hours.
Macario Lovato, 33, and three companions were in a vehicle that was washed into a drainage canal behind the Allsup's store at 21st and Thornton Streets. The other three made it safely to dry land, but "Lovato's feet were apparently caught in a culvert and he could not escape," the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Curry County Extension Agent Billy Dictson said the agricultural experimental station 13 miles north of Clovis had received 5 inches of rain with heavy hail.
In Roosevelt County, Extension Agent Floyd McAlister said he'd had a call from Bethel farmer Leland Pool that "his 6-inch gauge had overflowed."
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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