Pages Past Oct. 16: Snow covers much of eastern NM

On this date …

1946: A 21-year-old father of two was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Sadoth Chavez said he killed Felix Bass of Littlefield in self-defense during a game of dice near Melrose.

District Judge J. C. Compton declined to accept Chavez’ plea when he said he killed in self-defense, and so his attorney told the court Chavez “realized that he went farther than self-defense in slashing Bass’ throat with a broken neck of a whiskey bottle,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.

Chavez was sentenced to 15 to 20 years in the state prison.

Chavez’ wife and one of his children were in the courtroom when sentence was passed.

1952: Curry County was home to 13,236 registered voters — 11,167 Democrats, 1,494 Republicans, three Socialists, four New Party and 568 undeclared, according to Deputy County Clerk Dorothy Thomas.

1956: Clovis had recently organized a Civil Air Patrol.

Officers include Cmdr. Joe Blair, Supply Officer Jim Garrison, Communications Officer Jack Wiggins and Adjutant Ray Brock.

1957: Country Store supermarket at 204 Grand in Clovis offered Sweet 16 Oleo for 19 cents a pound, a 10-pound bag of potatoes for 47 cents and all-meat sliced bologna for 35 cents a pound.

Northern tissue was three rolls for a quarter.

1964: Two Marshall Junior High School boys were arrested for breaking into the Eugene Field elementary school and stealing coins from a soft drink machine, a pencil machine and a notebook machine.

Police said the boys climbed a fire escape to gain entry to the building.

1965: Cowboy cartoonist Ace Reid was scheduled to be the guest speaker during the 18th annual Clovis Cattle Festival held at Hotel Clovis.

About 12,000 head of cattle were expected to be sold during the four-day event.

Judges for the show cattle were Lewis Cooper of Elida, Fred Darden of California and Henry Steel of Illinois.

1966: Burger Chef, at 501 W. Seventh in Clovis, offered five cheeseburgers for 89 cents each Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Regular hamburgers were always 15 cents each.

1968: Snow covered the ground at Forrest, House, Ragland, McAlister and Broadview and unseasonably cold temperatures dipped into the 30s across the region.

Icy conditions were blamed for two auto accidents in Clovis.

1972: Rumors of bomb scares at Eastern New Mexico University had been “greatly exaggerated,” according to the head of the college’s security force.

George Reynolds said ENMU had received only one recent bomb threat. That one had been phoned in to one of the women’s dormitories and, after a search, was “proved fruitless.”

Jeane Dixon, an American psychic, had made a prediction there would be “mass murder” on a campus in west Texas or eastern New Mexico. Reynolds called the report “poppycock” and said he felt sure “that no one was upset by the rumor spread on campus and downtown.”

Reynolds also said bomb threats called for criminal prosecution and claimed “special devices are in use that will quickly pinpoint a caller.”

Dixon, who died in 1997 at age 93, was best known for her syndicated newspaper astrology column. Some credit her with predicting President Kennedy’s assassination in a 1956 Parade magazine article. But while she predicted the winner of the 1960 presidential election would be “assassinated or die in office,” she later predicted Richard Nixon would win that election.

She also famously predicted, incorrectly, that World War III would begin in 1958, and that the Soviets would be first to put men on the moon.

1974: The Clovis News-Journal profiled Dr. Elwyn Crume, described as an active participant in many community organizations.

The article reported Crume, an optometrist, was a Clovis High graduate and U.S. Air Force veteran who remained active in the Air Force reserves.

Elwyn and Patricia Crume had two children in college and an eighth-grader at Yucca Junior High.

He was involved in the Clovis Executive Club, the Shriners, the Elks Club and the Rotary Club.

He was also a licensed pilot.

Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:

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