Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1946: The Christian Science Reading Room, at 105 W. Fourth in Clovis, was open daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. except Sundays and holidays.
The First Church of Christ Scientist was inviting the public, and especially service men, to use the reading room “where the Bible, and all authorized Christian Science literature may be read, borrowed or purchased.”
1950: Portales police had arrested a man who claimed he molested a 7-year-old girl in a city park. But officials had been unable to locate a victim.
Sheriff J.N. McCall said the transient likely fabricated the story.
1951: The year’s first “real rainstorm” had dumped more than an inch of moisture across the region, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Portales saw 1.3 inches, almost doubling its total for the year.
Clovis had 1.2 inches.
Grady received rain, but also hail, which caused crop damage.
The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co. reported hundreds of customers were without service because of heavy rain and high winds.
1956: A Ninth District Court jury found two men innocent of providing alcohol to a 15-year-old girl.
Testimony showed the girl had passed out from drunkenness at a west-side Clovis skating rink.
The girl testified the men had given her a Coke to drink and that the men had whiskey, but she could not say whether the Coke had whiskey in it.
Both men said they only gave the girl Coke in a cup.
1960: Clovis’ population was at 23,427, according to preliminary Census figures. That was 6,000 people more than in 1950.
1969: New Mexico Speaker of the House David Norvell, D-Clovis, said Clovis residents were “justifiably upset” over a report alleging discrimination in the city.
“Substantive statements from a very few disgruntled witnesses were taken ... as the absolute gospel without consideration of checking further,” Norvell said.
“The report completely lacks objectivity.”
On the other hand, Norvell told the Clovis News-Journal, he was certain that some reports of discrimination in Clovis “have substantial basis in truth.”
Norvell went on to say discrimination existed in every city, town, village, state and nation and he said it should not be tolerated.
Norvell had co-sponsored a bill that authorized the Human Rights Commission to issue cease and desist orders against anyone discriminating in employment or housing.
1972: The front page of the Clovis News-Journal brought news about the death of popular television actor Dan Blocker – “Hoss Cartwright” on “Bonanza.”
“An autopsy disclosed … that the 6-feet-4, 300-pound actor had been felled by a blood clot in the lung,” United Press International reported. Blocker was 43.
Blocker played the role of Hoss for 13 years. “(A) poll once declared that he was the best-known actor in the nation,” UPI reported. “He fit hand in glove the part of Hoss – a gentle, girl-shy cowpoke, earnestly well meaning, an amiable moose slow to anger but an unstoppable juggernaut of muscle when aroused.”
Off screen, Blocker was active in auto racing and deeply involved in political work as a liberal Democrat, UPI reported.
Fellow actors reacted to his death with deep sorrow.
“It’s like losing a real brother,” said Michael Landon, who played Little Joe Cartwright on the TV show.
Blocker was buried in DeKalb, Texas, where he was born and raised.
1975: Texico school Superintendent A.D. McDonald had been selected for a Distinguished Public Service Award to be presented by New Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca.
McDonald, scheduled to retire at the end of the school year, had been superintendent in Texico since 1963.
The district built a new elementary school, high school library, cafeteria and athletic complex under his direction.
He had also been named Texico’s Man of the Year by the Texico Chamber of Commerce for 1975.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
