Pioneer women honored at breakfast

DEPUTY EDITOR

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link Staff photo: Kevin Wilson

Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce Director Ernie Kos embraces Lucille Johnson of Claude during Friday’s Pioneer Days Women’s Breakfast at the Clovis Civic Center.

As she enjoyed her breakfast at the Clovis Civic Center, Lucille Johnson couldn’t help but enjoy the company around her as Clovis was celebrated during the Heritage Days Women’s Breakfast.

But when it came time for her to speak, Johnson beamed with pride as she spoke of her upbringing in Claude.

“We had a two-room school, with four grades in each room,” said Johnson, a pioneer of 85 years. “We were taught there through the eighth grade. I had the same teacher for four years.”

Many pioneer women like Johnson were honored during the hour-long event, which drew about 150 and included guest speakers, rodeo queens, music and pioneers — however you define them.

David Robinson of Plateau, a sponsor for the 14th annual breakfast, spoke of worldly pioneering women like Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

But, Robinson said, it didn’t stop there.

“The term pioneer invokes tough and hard work, often done in isolation,” Robinson said. “It’s someone who does the work that has to be done, and that’s the women of Clovis.”

Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ernie Kos had a different concept. A pioneer woman, she said, was somebody who made their biscuits from scratch.

From scratch biscuits were prepped by civic center staff, along with eggs, potatoes with a hint of spice, gravy, sausage and bacon, taken in buffet style in the main banquet room’s northwest corner as the Curry County Outlaws band played in the room’s northeast corner.

The event also included Kyla Myers performing her poem, “So God Made a Cowboy.” Myers, a native of Clovis, wrote the poem last year as part of her winning campaign for Miss Rodeo New Mexico Teen. This year, it was chosen as the theme for the week-long Pioneer Days celebration.

Myers, now attending New Mexico State University, introduced the numerous other queens and royalty hopefuls before insisting Wilma Fulgham come up as well.

Fulgham, Miss Rodeo New Mexico in 1950, now operates the annual pageant from Clovis.

“We are always asked why we have the rodeo pageant in Clovis, instead of Albuquerque or a bigger city,” Fulgham said. “There is no other place, as far as I’m concerned, because we have such great community support. It’s just, to me, a no-brainer.”

Near the end of the breakfast, Courtney Bailey of the Chamber of Commerce went from table to table, letting pioneer women speak about their upbringing in the area.

Included in the interview portion was Irene Willis, who lives 1.5 miles east of Grady in the only home she’s ever known.

“My granddaddy, James Allen Willis, bought the homestead in 1909. My daddy was born there in 1912, and he died there in 1982. I was born there in 1941, and I still live there.”

Willis attended school at Ranchvale until it combined with the Clovis district, and she spent her final three years at Clovis High School before graduating in 1960. The school was then at the current location for the Clovis-Carver Public Library.

Willis worked for 33 years as a hospital cook, starting at the former hospital at 1200 Thornton and retiring in 2011 at Plains Regional Medical Center.

A brief speech was given from Hank Baskett Jr., who is retiring from the Oasis Children’s Advocacy Center. Baskett was considered an honorary pioneer, even though he came to Clovis on a military assignment.

“”I arrived here in 1974,” Baskett said. “My heavenly father was punishing me for all I had done wrong. Sweetest punishment I ever received.”