Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date …
1940: Two Kansas women were killed and two more seriously injured when their car crashed into the rear of a parked tractor-trailer rig near Kenna.
The truck’s driver, James William Talley of Clovis, said a wheel on his truck had broken the night before. He said he’d parked the truck, put out flares, then caught a ride into Roswell for help.
Talley was not present when the crash occurred about 5:30 a.m.
1940: The headline reported across eight columns of the Clovis News-Journal: “We will defeat the world,” says Hitler.
1943: Portales Lions Club was established with 18 charter members.
1959: Quail hunters who killed six tame geese on the Olan Dallas irrigation reservoir earlier in the week paid the Floyd farmer $20 for the transgression.
Dallas said he and his wife chased the hunters at speeds up to 90 mph after the incident but could not catch them.
When one of the hunters returned to pay for the geese, he told Dallas he had been unable to sleep since the shooting and that he “felt just like he had robbed a bank,” Dallas said.
1964: New Mexico State Police Officers Joe Cotton of Clovis and David Kingsberry of Portales were the top shooters in a district competition held east of Clovis.
Cotton scored the maximum 100 points in the marksmanship contest; Kingsberry scored 99.2
1970: All three Clovis locations of Allsup’s 7-11 stores were offering Christmas trees for sale, including scotch pine, fur, balsam and blue spruce.
1972: Portales was set to try out a “student discount night” aimed to lure the college crowd from Eastern New Mexico University into the downtown area for an evening of Christmas shopping and entertainment.
Sponsored by the University Affairs and Business Affairs committees of the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce, the event was designed to fulfill several purposes, according to Derrell Bulls, chairman of the department of marketing at ENMU, and chair of the University Affairs committee.
“It gives students an opportunity to buy Christmas gifts at a discounted rate,” Bulls said, “and it will better acquaint the students with the businessmen of this community.”
1975: Bob’s Mr. Shop in Clovis promoted “new designs in tube socks” in its newspaper advertising. The “super-soft” socks called Grafeeti, had “pictures and sayings” screen-printed on them. The cost was $2 per pair.
1987: Preschoolers from the Clovis Nazarene School were participating in the Salvation Army Angel Tree project, a program designed to help local children in need have a brighter holiday.
Holly Baker, Holly Bennett, Tara Harris, Katherine Janker, and Jeffrey McMeans were photographed by the Clovis News Journal as their preschool class selected names from an Angel Tree, and they signed up to help specific children.
Salvation Army Capt. Joe Frank Chavez said about 600 names had been placed on Angel Trees around Clovis, but only 170 had been picked up so far.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
