Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1937: The Clovis Evening News-Journal reported farmer A.G. Kenyon had a well pumping 90,000 gallons of water an hour.
Kenyon, whose crops east of Clovis included peanuts, wheat and sweet potatoes, said his well ran 11 hours a day.
1958: A 37-year-old Clovis woman was fined $25 for discharging a firearm in the city limits. She said she was attempting to bring her husband home after he’d been “gambling all night” in a home at 515 W. First.
She said she fired a shot into the floor, which caught the attention of the gamblers, who lined up against a wall. “I wasn’t shooting at anybody,” she told officers.
1960: A 13-year-old Carrizozo boy rode his horse 53 miles in 3 hours and 38 minutes to win the race that kicked off the Clovis Junior Rodeo. Eighteen horses and riders competed, traveling from Fort Sumner to the grain elevator at Grier, just west of Cannon Air Force Base.
Lester Lee Harrelson, 12, of Fort Sumner was five minutes and a quarter of a mile behind Kenneth Crenshaw.
1962: The Corral Playhouse in Portales was hosting the final night of “Smilin’ Through.”
The love story centered around a family feud was characterized as a “delightfully done tear-jerker,” by Clovis News-Journal writer Frank Smith.
1970: Sheila Garner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Garner of Farwell, had been crowned queen of the annual Border Town Days celebration in Texico-Farwell.
Reporters estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people attended the three-day celebration, which included a rodeo and parade.
1972: Richard Purvis was named the principal of Marshall Junior High School.
His was one of several personnel changes around the district.
Glenn Randolph became the assistant principal at Clovis High School after Carroll Graham retired from the position.
1973: H. R. Gibson, the founder of Gibson Discount Store, was in Clovis to help open a Gibson’s at 1200 W. 21st St.
Gibson told store employees and community leaders that the United States, despite recent struggles, was going strong.
“We still have the greatest country in the world, regardless of Watergate,” Gibson said.
He addressed the “cancer” of inflation, but said he was confident “the government will be able to keep it from running away.”
He said everything Gibson’s sells is sold at a profit, but “we are selling most (items) at the same price as five or six years ago.”
Officials said the 65,000-square-foot Gibson’s store was expected to handle annual gross sales of $4 million.
The new store was scheduled to employ about 100 people with an annual payroll of $300,000.
1974: Hometown favorite Tony Romero was knocked down three times in the first round and lost his professional lightweight boxing match with Mexico’s Bobby Estrada at the Clovis Sports Arena. Romero said after the fight he could not remember anything after the second knockdown.
1976: Local wheat growers gathered in Clovis to talk about federal laws that could “put the custom combiners out of business” and a possible “restraining” of wheat production.
Jerry Rees, executive vice president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, led the meeting.
He said NAWG was responsible for the repeal of a federal regulation that would have required toilet and running water facilities for every 160 acres of land, which he said would have been devastating for producers.
Rees also led a discussion on whether growers should voluntarily manage their wheat production to prevent government officials from stockpiling reserves, which it could then “dump on the market” as a means to control prices.
1977: Cannon Air Force Base’s Bill Gaedke, 45, won two gold medals at the Southwest Region Amateur Athletic Union Masters Track and Field Championship in Dallas.
Gaedke took home the gold for the 440- and 880- yard runs in 104-degree heat.
He won the 880 in 2:07 and just an hour and a half later took the 440 in just over 56 seconds.
2006: Eastern New Mexico University had a new sports information director.
Adam Pitterman, 34, was preparing for his first fall sports season in Portales.
A native of Western New York, Pitterman succeeded Robert McKinney, who left after eight years for a similar position in Salem, Ore.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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