Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1940: Coach Rock Staubus’ Clovis High School football team had scheduled nine games but wanted three more to complete “one of the stiffest schedules arranged for a local team in several gridiron years,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Teams on the schedule already included Clayton, Raton, Portales, Carlsbad and St. Michael’s College of Santa Fe.
The season was slated to begin Sept. 13, but no opponent had been lined up yet.
1950: Johnny Reynolds of Dora was in Portales’ Miller hospital after suffering a fractured right arm.
Reynolds was grinding feed when a tractor belt slipped, hooked his glove, and flipped him on his arm, The Portales Daily News reported.
Just one week earlier, Reynolds had suffered burns on his face while putting out a prairie fire.
1951: The Portales City Council asked the city attorney to draw up an ordinance prohibiting the firing of BB guns in the city limits.
Councilmen said accidents with BB guns had blinded several persons in Texas recently, and there had been multiple complaints about Portales youngsters firing pellets in congested areas.
1960: Plans had been made to expand the Christian Children’s home in Portales. Officials said 56 children lived at the home, but more than 20 had been turned away because of lack of facilities.
Plans included a self-contained cottage house that would shelter 18 children and their house parents and a vocational-recreational building.
Rex Stockton had been appointed to head fundraising for the projects. The children’s home had been founded in 1954 with a gift of land by Mr. and Mrs. J.W. Terry of Portales.
1961: Postmaster Gen. J. Edward Day said he would not restore twice-a-day home mail deliveries.
Even if he wanted to, he said, Congress had declined to give him the $176 million a year he said would be needed to complete the task.
1962: An unnamed Portales man was fined $24.50 for 11 parking tickets he’d received in the past month, the Portales News-Tribune reported.
Judge Eldon Whitten said a traffic officer witnessed the man removing a ticket from his windshield and throwing it on the ground.
“That was when the summons was issued to bring him into court,” the newspaper reported.
1969: Mrs. Virginia Torgeson was teaching a series of bridge classes, for beginners and intermediate players.
Daytime and evening classes were scheduled in Clovis.
“Bridge is fun and a grand way to make new friends,” a promotional advertisement reported.
“It will open doors for you socially & professionally!”
The classes were endorsed by the American Bridge Teachers Association.
1971: The Argus Investigation Service was two days from opening at 125 E. Plaza Drive in Clovis.
An agency advertisement reported, “There is no substitute for experience,” and said its services were ethical, confidential and discreet.
Agents operated motion picture devices and still cameras and were skilled at investigating accidents, embezzlements and patent infringements as well as looking into criminal matters, and providing bodyguard services.
Alvin Jesseph was the Clovis office manager for the agency that had affiliated offices throughout the world, its advertisement reported.
1971: Funeral services were being planned for Sarah Freeman, 92, of Clovis. She had homesteaded in the Frio community north of Clovis in 1908.
Survivors included her son Walter Freeman of Clovis.
1975: Danny Boone, a sixth-grader at Zia Elementary in Clovis, correctly spelled “veracious” and “recital” to win the Curry County Spelling Bee at Parkview Elementary.
Danny qualified to compete in the regional bee at Amarillo on April 26.
1977: Farwell senior Kathy Booth had been named to the Class A all-state basketball team.
That was the latest in a long line of high school athletic honors she had received.
Booth had previously been named to the Amarillo Globe-News Panhandle Plains Super Team and to the all-district team.
She also played golf and ran track for the “Steerettes,” whose nickname has since been changed to Lady Blue.
Kathy Booth went on to play college basketball for the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens in Plainview.
1983: Eastern New Mexico University President Warren Armstrong was named president of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan., after a 7 1/2-year run leading ENMU, with the change to take place July 1.
Armstrong was the sixth president of ENMU. Prior to serving as Eastern’s head administrator, Armstrong was the dean of the college of liberal arts and a history professor for five years at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn.
Buck Wilson, president of the board of regents, announced that the regents would act quickly to find Armstrong’s successor. Eastern hired within for its seventh president, selecting Robert L. Matheny, who served for the next eight years.
1988: High Plains animal lovers staged a protest at Clovis’ Hillcrest Zoo in defense of Sonny, a rambunctious elephant who had been threatened with euthanasia because of destructive behavior at the zoo and the zoo’s inability to find a place to rehome him.
A group of 25-30 people, including District Attorney Les Williams, marched with picket signs, and organizers were circulating petitions on Sonny’s behalf to present to the Clovis city commission.
Sonny eventually found a new home at the Popcorn Park Zoo and Animal Shelter in New Jersey where he was transported with money raised by Clovis citizens. He died there in 2001.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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