Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date …
1940: A 16-year-old boy was in Clovis’ jail waiting for railroad officials to question him about an incident that occurred in Dalhart, Texas.
The boy told police he wanted to turn himself in to authorities because he was wanted for escaping parole in Kansas. That was not the case, but police inquiries led to the Dalhart connection.
“I don’t know whether it was his conscience bothering him as much as his stomach,” Clovis Police Chief R.M. Witherspoon said.
“He was a pretty hungry young man and couldn’t find anything to eat.”
1950: Portales was about to be home to a “new and bigger” McGee Furniture Co. at 308 E. State St.
The “gigantic grand opening” was set for the weekend with “valuable prizes” that included mattresses, lamps, drapes, a rug and one M. Ernst Horse Clock.
Lloyd McGee was manager-owner of the store. Ray Scott was in charge of delivery and Wayne Reigel was the carpet layer. Verlin Towe was an experienced business man who “knows his furniture, appliances and carpeting,” an advertisement in the Portales Daily News reported. “He will be glad to help you with your furniture needs.”
1954: Rev. J.R. Bunts, pastor at Trinity Methodist Church in Clovis, was elected president of the Curry County Ministerial Alliance. Elected vice president was T.J. Gamble, pastor of Prince Street Baptist Church. J.R. Carver, retired Presbyterian minister, was elected secretary-treasurer.
1960: The region saw icy streets and overcast skies. Clovis weatherman Karl Kramer reported the city received a little more than an inch of snow, but temperatures in the teens and brisk winds made traveling difficult.
Police reported “a rash of minor automobile accidents” around the area. At least 14 crashes were reported, with one injury. Hazel Cummings, 38, of 305 W. First St. in Clovis suffered a broken right arm in a wreck.
Temperatures were reported as low as 17 degrees, the lowest of the season to date.
1960: Loring's Service station at 21st and Main in Clovis announced it was again giving away frosted antique car glasses.
“By popular demand,” a newspaper advertisement reported, the glasses were free to anyone purchasing 10 gallons or more of gasoline at the Shamrock station.
1962: Students Ronny Cox and Nina McGuffin, both of Portales, were starring in the Eastern New Mexico University production of "Monique," which was opening a four-day run at the ENMU theater.
Tickets for the drama-packed murder mystery were available at the information desk in the administration building.
1965: White’s was “the home of greater value” at 421 Main in Clovis.
A Vibra-Beat vacuum cleaner went for $49.95, with monthly payments as low as $5.
1966: Clovis’ Alco, at 405 Main, offered Baby Magic dolls for $10.44, 50 Christmas cards for 57 cents and Norelco’s “flip-top” speed shaver for $11.33.
1969: D. Arnold McCall, 18, of Portales, had been named one of six scholarship winners in the National 4-H Swine program.
In nine years showing pigs, McCall had shown two grand champions at state fairs and had at least one county champion each year.
He had raised 323 barrows, 50 sows, six boars and nine gilts.
His plans after graduating high school: He wanted to become a federal meat inspector.
1970: Former Clovis resident Kathleen Mott had signed a two-year contract with the Linz Opera Co. in Linz, Austria.
Mott had attended junior high school and high school in Clovis when her father was choir director at the city's First Baptist Church.
Most recently a resident of Snyder, Texas, Mott had sung in Santa Fe during the last two opera seasons. She graduated from Indiana University in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in music.
1970: Jumbo rolls of Christmas paper wrappings were on sale at Cook's Discount Department Store.
The rolls — 80 square feet — were regularly priced at 88 cents, on sale for 59 cents.
Cook's was located at 21st and Mitchell streets in Clovis.
1971: An overpass connecting the Eastern New Mexico University campus with its physical education complex on the other side of U.S. 70 had received funding.
Eight years after its inception, the Board of Education's finance committee had approved $125,000 for the project.
State officials denied ENMU's request for a running track on campus that would have benefited its national-champion track and field athletes.
1971: Portales' Dick Shumate recalled his experience at Pearl Harbor 30 years earlier.
Shumate was aboard the USS Phelps when the ship came under attack.
"I was sleeping in the below-deck living quarters, and our first reaction was to get mad," he told Clovis News-Journal reporter John R. Moore.
"We were scared, too, and any man that says he wasn't is a fool."
1976: Six Albuquerque residents were jailed in Portales after police said they were distributing marijuana in eastern New Mexico.
All six were being held on $10,000 bond.
The six were believed tied with six others who had been arrested a month earlier after 1,400 pounds of pot were found on a plane.
1987: Yucca Junior High eighth-grader Cory Thrasher and ninth-grader Julie Poynor captured top honors in the school's first Invent America! competition.
The Invent America! program started at Lockwood Elementary the year before, designed to foster creative and critical thinking skills.
Science students from two eighth-grade classes and four ninth-grade classes competed.
Cory's project was a "bobbin bell," and Julie had a "deluxe book marker," according to the list published in the Clovis News-Journal. The two were also photographed as they were congratulated by Yucca teacher Janita Stanfield and Principal James Rucker.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
