Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1951: Fifty head of Brahman calves, each weighing about 300 pounds, were purchased for an upcoming calf-roping competition. Officials with the Clovis Mounted Patrol reported the calves had never been roped.
Champion roper Homer Pettigrew, formerly of Grady but currently living in Chandler, Ariz., said he planned to attend the April 8 competition and would bring his top roping horse.
1955: Clovis house mover Homer Bennett was fined $106 for traffic violations in Portales.
Bennett pleaded guilty to failing to obtain a permit from state police and failing to have his equipment inspected by state police.
Two other charges against him were dropped.
1956: A Portales woman was packing her things and planning to move away from her husband, who told police he’d had a dream that he killed her.
The husband told police “vague stories” about a dream in which he choked his wife and might have disposed of her body, newspapers in Clovis and Portales reported.
Police went in search of the woman after her husband reported her missing. They ultimately found her in Amarillo where she’d gone to escape her husband.
1959: Vernie McGhee of 309 W. Tierra Blanca in Clovis reported to police that someone had stolen women’s clothing from the wash line in the yard of her home.
1962: Funeral services were being planned for a 6-year-old Needmore boy who died after he was bitten by a rattlesnake.
Officials said Adran Salas was bitten on the arm as he played near his home, 14 miles south of Muleshoe.
Adran died at West Plains Hospital in Muleshoe, one day after the incident.
1968: Maj. Gen. Francis Murdoch Jr., deputy commanding general of Army reserve forces, was headed to Portales to inspect the plans for the new Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program set to officially begin at Eastern New Mexico University at the start of the fall semester.
The four-year program was to be staffed by four military officers and four enlisted men, with graduates eligible to be commissioned into the Army as second lieutenants.
Murdoch was scheduled to be on campus, where he was to meet with ENMU President Charles Meister as well as the commander of the ENMU ROTC unit, Lt. Col. Dean Lansing, and other administrators.
1971: John Welborn, the soft-spoken, sandy-haired football coach of the Portales Rams the past two years, had resigned. Welborn said he'd accepted a job as head football coach and athletic director at Shawnee, Okla.
Welborn, an Oklahoma native, had coached the Rams to back-to-back 8-2 seasons.
1974: A service station marquee in Portales reflected a “witty word of caution,” according to a newspaper photo caption.
The sign was in reference to the popular craze of running across Eastern New Mexico University wearing only a pair of athletic shoes.
The sign read:
“Streakers repant. Your end is in sight.”
1976: Big Silver Streak, the 14-year-old mascot for Eastern New Mexico University, had died.
The greyhound attended 12 straight homecoming parades and was a regular at ENMU sporting events as well as faculty and student social functions.
The dog had stopped attending university football games because it was spooked by “aerial bombs” fired during celebrations.
1981: David Terry had been named Floyd's Outstanding Citizen for 1981. The announcement came during the annual Floyd Country Jamboree.
Terry, 53, had been a resident of the community for 16 years. He owned one of the region's largest dairy operations with 800 cows milking.
1987: Clovis police reports included:
• A set of First Flight golf clubs and about 175 golf balls were stolen from a garage on Layton Court.
• A 10-speed bike valued at $535 was stolen from Albertson's parking lot.
• Someone threw an object through a window at Shipley Furniture. Damage was estimated at $400.
1988: Clovis High School had the largest Future Farmers of America chapter in the state, according to a Clovis News Journal feature in honor of National Agriculture Week.
Saundra Castillo, Jerry Birdwell, and Bill Morrison were the instructors for the CHS ag department.
Castillo, a horticulture specialist, said students were growing bedding plants for flowers and vegetables in the school greenhouse. Sales of those plants were used to raise money to help support the school-owned farm and assist students with FFA projects.
2007: Communities across Roosevelt, Curry and Quay counties were picking up debris and evaluating losses after multiple tornadoes tore through the region the night before.
Clovis was hardest hit with more than a dozen hurt and more than 100 homes and businesses destroyed.
Two Clovis residents soon died from injuries suffered in the storm.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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