Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1881: Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett killed outlaw William “Billy the Kid” Bonney at Fort Sumner.
Fort Sumner resident Jesus Silva was among those witnessing the Kid’s death.
“There on the floor, we saw Billy stretched out, face down,” he said.
“We turned him over, and when Deluvina (Maxwell, a friend) realized fully it was the Kid, she began to cry bitterly, interspersing with her tears the vilest curses she could bestow on the head of Pat Garrett.”
1910: William Hanna was born in Melrose.
The son of a construction worker, he only lived in the town three years.
Hanna and Joseph Barbera were co-creators of animated legends Huckleberry Hound, Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, George Jetson and countless others.
Hanna died March 22, 2001.
1950: Area residents were preparing for a 4-H/FFA kids rodeo in Portales.
Events included bareback bronc riding, ribbon roping, a clowning demonstration and a Roosevelt County square dance routine on horseback.
Admission was 75 cents for adults, 50 cents for youth or $2 for families.
1960: Roosevelt County Sheriff Leon Harris arrested two escapees from the jail in Floydada, Texas, without incident.
Harris said he found the men trying to start a car in a vacant lot in northwest Portales.
The men, one jailed for writing bad checks and the other on a parole violation, had been free less than 14 hours before they were caught.
Floydada officials had tipped the sheriff that the men might be headed their way since one had previously lived in Portales.
1961: Birdie Rackler was hoping to win a pair of hose when she signed up for a contest at Portales' Mode O'Day clothing store. She did win the hose, but also learned she was the winner of the store's top prize in its nationwide promotion -- a trip to Europe.
She didn't really want to go to Europe.
“I've never had any desire to go to Europe or anywhere else,” she told the Portales News-Tribune. “I'm satisfied with home.”
Her neighbors and children may have been more excited than she was about her good fortune.
“Everybody wants us to go,” she said. “I suppose I would want to go too if we were younger or my husband's health were better. Now it just seems like a worry.”
Each of the store's 650 locations across the country awarded three prizes in their drawings - a dress for first place, a slip for second place and a pair of hose for third place. All three prize recipients were then entered in the national drawing for the trip.
Rackler said she had forgotten all about the contest until her husband, Robert, answered a phone call from Los Angeles, where Mode O'Day was headquartered. “I found out it was a call from California and I thought something had happened to our son who is stationed at Fort Ord,” she said. “The only thing I could say when they told me I won was, 'It couldn't happen to me.'”
The Racklers, who farmed near Floyd for years, ultimately sold the trip to Europe to the wife of a Portales veterinarian for $500. Then they took the money and put it toward a Ford Falcon.
“The first new car they ever had, said Jo Rackler, Birdie's daughter-in-law.
Grandson Mike Rackler was born the same day the car was purchased. Rackler family members, including Mike, drove the Falcon until “they eventually wore the car out,” Jo Rackler said.
1962: Items from the Clovis police blotter:
• Mrs. Iva Rickard, who lived at 308 N. Sheldon, reported someone had thrown beer bottles in her front yard.
• A curtain and blind were destroyed and "wall paint was damaged" in a house fire at 813 Gidding. A cigarette was blamed for the damage.
• A man who lived at 801 Lea told police he was driving east on First Street when two subjects he did not know invited him to the country. When they arrived, the man said the subjects started fighting him. He told police he would not recognize them if he saw them again.
1962: Movies at local theaters included "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation," starring Jimmy Stewart and Maureen Ohara," "No Name on the Bullet," starring Audie Murphy and "Sergeants," starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.
Admission ranged from 25 cents for children to "$1 a car" at the drive-ins.
1968: A Portales teenager had won the Miss New Mexico crown in competition at Hobbs.
Karen Jan Maciolek, 19, a student at Eastern New Mexico University, qualified for the 1969 Miss America pageant with her victory.
It marked the second consecutive year Miss Portales went on to win the Miss New Mexico title. Rosemary Brown won a year earlier.
"Miss Maciolek is a small, dark-haired girl who composes her own ballets and reads Russian novels in her spare time," United Press International reported in its coverage of the event.
Maciolek, a physical education major, performed a ballet she choreographed herself for her winning talent presentation.
The 5-foot-3 inch, 115-pound brown-eyed brunette won the swimsuit competition as well en route to the overall prize.
Judith Ford of Illinois won the Miss America pageant in September of 1968, records show.
1976: Members of the Eastern Plains Council of Governments voted 18-10 to rescind an earlier vote that would have moved EPCOG offices from Clovis to Tucumcari.
The council in February had voted 14-12 to ask for the resignation of EPCOG’s executive director and tied it to office relocation.
The council then had “second thoughts” about the relocation and called for another vote, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Leland Tillman had been appointed acting director, succeeding Troy Ramsey.
1976: Farmers north and west of Grady reported 2 to 3 inches of rain in 36 hours, according to Grady storekeeper C. S. Queener.
Clovis reported a half inch of rain in 45 minutes, which flooded streets, creating a “water wonderland” for children, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
A front-page photo showed children playing in knee-deep water at the corner of Llano Estacado and Falkirk in Colonial Park Estates.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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