Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1960: Stroud’s Food Market at 523 S. Ave. C in Portales offered bacon for 49 cents per pound.
Cans of peaches were 25 cents, Cokes were six for 29 cents, and 8-inch fruit pies were three for $1.
1960: Clovis dedicated its new Salvation Army building at Second and Axtell streets.
Construction cost $24,500 and was funded with private donations locally and through the Salvation Army, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
1968: Dorothy Worrell of Clovis and Lou Hardy of Tulia had won their second straight Butterfly Tournament at the Tule Lake Country Club in Tulia.
Their low-ball total of 72 was four strokes better than their closest competitors.
Mary Sweatman and Marie White of Muleshoe tied for first place in the first flight.
In other sports news:
n The Curry County Mounted Patrol was preparing to host the World’s Championship Steer Roping competition at the Fairgrounds. Admission would be $1.50 for adults, 75 cents for children.
1969: A Clovis grocery store clerk was stabbed multiple times with a 6-inch hunting knife by a lone bandit, who escaped with about $60 from the register.
Ozella Pierce, 56, was stabbed in the chest and arms and beaten with a blunt instrument, police said. The robbery occurred about 8:30 a.m. at the Park Grocery, 1401 E. 10th.
Pierce called the store’s owner, telling him “I’ve been robbed and stabbed.” Owner Troy Hall called police and rushed to the store, where he found Pierce on her knees beside the phone.
Pierce told police the name of the man who stabbed her. Police arrested a man they later learned had a similar name but was not the man Pierce had identified.
“The small store was a mass of blood spots, with smears on the door, apparently left there as the robber fled, and trails showed where Mrs. Pierce had first been stabbed and her path as she got to the telephone,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
The man Pierce identified and another man were arrested the next day in Oklahoma City.
Pierce was listed in “poor, but not critical condition,” in the Clovis hospital, officials said. She remained in the hospital a week later, continuing to “hold her own,” a hospital spokesman said.
Lester Ray Dickson Jr., 27, was ultimately found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to 10 to 50 years in prison.
1971: Lightning had hit a tree at 1020 Merriwether in Clovis.
The 30-foot tree was shattered and its remains were located up to 30 yards away.
The storm also left Clovis wet, with .79 of an inch of rain recorded.
Police said three minor traffic accidents were blamed on the rain, which left streets slick.
1975: New Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca spent the day in Clovis, discussing political issues and throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a Little League all-star baseball game.
He said he did not support expansion of the state penitentiary despite the growing prison population, but he did support the idea of a second state penitentiary, perhaps in the Four Corners area.
1976: The Curry County Sheriff’s Department was promoting chemical thumbprinting as a means to reduce the number of worthless checks being passed to local businesses.
Officials said Clovis-area business owners had lost more than $50,000 in seven months because of the number of hot checks received.
2006: Gov. Bill Richardson had appointed David Reeb to fill the newly created fourth judge’s position in the 9th Judicial District Court.
“I’ve aspired to be a judge since I was in law school,” said Reeb, 37, who had been a private-practice attorney since 2003.
Reeb remains a district judge today.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
