Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1881: Billy the Kid escaped from the Lincoln County jail, where he was being held and awaiting execution for the 1878 shooting death of Sheriff William Brady.
The website aboutbillythekid.com reports the Kid saw his opportunity to get away about noon.
One of his guards had taken other prisoners to lunch at a nearby hotel. The Kid convinced his only remaining guard to let him visit the outhouse.
While details vary about what happened next, all agree the Kid killed both guards a few minutes later.
“The townspeople made no move to interfere as the Kid took his sweet time in leaving,” the website reports.
Less than three months later, on July 14, 1881, new Sheriff Pat Garrett killed the Kid at a friend’s home in Fort Sumner.
1941: Heavy rains fell across much of the region.
Ranchvale and Pleasant Hill saw 2 inches of rain.
Water was over the highway in Grier and multiple cars were stalled on the sides of the roads throughout eastern New Mexico because of flooding.
Hail damage was light, mostly to fruit trees and flowers.
Clovis reported 1.77 inches of rain, boosting April’s total to 3.47 inches, the third-wettest April in city history.
1947: After dropping five straight road games to open the season, Clovis baseball fans hoped to help the Pioneers find the win column in the season’s home opener.
Clovis hosted Lubbock, which was undefeated.
Veteran Mel Kramer was slated to pitch for the Pioneers. Lubbock planned to start Len Heinz, who was coming off an 18-win season.
The newspaper headline a day later: “Hubbers spoil Pioneers’ first home game, 14-10.”
1950: L. E. Hunton, principal at Portales’ Central Grade school since 1938, died during a tonsilectomy at Clovis Memorial Hospital.
Friends reported he “went into convulsions” during the procedure and surgeons could not revive him.
He was 33.
1955: J. L. Paxton, one of Elida’s earliest settlers, had died in Duncanville, Texas. He was 87. He had suffered a series of strokes and had been in a nursing home since November.
Paxton homesteaded 7 miles northwest of Elida in 1902. He was the last surviving charter member of the Elida Masonic Lodge. He had served on the community school board and was twice a county commissioner.
He was buried in the Elida cemetery.
1956: The Columbia “Tru-Fit” diamond ring came with a “guardian angel” as its protector. The ring was “guaranteed forever,” according to newspaper ads.
Prices ranged from $59.50 to $249.50.
May Brothers, Clovis’ “oldest and finest jewelers,” sold the rings that would “self-adjust” to the shape of your finger.
1961: Inmates at the Clovis jail were trying to settle back into their routines after a night the Clovis News-Journal described as “stormy.”
Police Chief Ollie Damron said the trouble started about 2 a.m. when a fight broke out between two inmates.
Damron said one inmate made “immoral suggestions” to the other and received “some lumps for his trouble.”
Then a drunk fell from “the top of a jail cell where he had been perched for a snooze,” Damron said. The man was taken to Memorial Hospital where he received eight stitches and was treated for a sprained wrist.
A third incident occurred when police locked up a man charged with being drunk. Since the jail, built to accommodate four people, already had seven inmates, police placed the alleged drunk in the unoccupied women’s cell. “For some reason he became offended, tried to tear out the plumbing and broke a light bulb,” the CN-J reported.
1962: Skeen’s Electronic Cleaners in Clovis encouraged customers to use their drive-up window with one-day service.
Skeen’s also offered seasonal storage of clothing.
“Bring in all the clothes you won’t need until fall,” a newspaper advertisement implored. “Have them cleaned and stored free of charge. You pay nothing until you pick them up in the fall.”
1965: Quay County Sheriff H. A. “Curly” Fiscus was receiving treatment for an injury suffered when a mental patient bit him on the arm.
Fiscus said he had received 22 shots of penicillin and a series of oral antibiotics to halt infection after his arm began to swell.
1966: Montgomery Ward was selling 21-inch console color TVs for $449.
A “new-type tube with a rare-earth element” made colors brighter, according to newspaper advertisements.
1969: Olan Bailey’s Texaco station was located at the corner of First and Prince streets in Clovis.
A paid newspaper ad told us:
• Olan’s Texaco had the “friendliest, most courteous service to be found anywhere.”
• The alert staff was sure to let you know when it’s time for an oil change or any other service your car needs.
• Oil check, tire check and windshield cleaning were all standard, and free, when you pulled in for gas.
• A mechanic was on duty.
• The station was open 24 hours for your convenience.
1971: Amarillo residents were planning to take the “last train west” to Clovis.
About 25 or 30 Texans were expected to board the Santa Fe Chief at 5:50 a.m. CDT on May 1 and arrive in Clovis at 6:45 a.m. MDT.
Clovis new car dealers had agreed to take the travelers to Cannon Air Force Base for a tour, then return them to Clovis where they would visit the Hillcrest Park zoo and walk through the Eastern New Mexico Arts and Crafts Show downtown.
Buses had been chartered for the return trip to Amarillo.
Santa Fe railroad officials had announced they were discontinuing passenger train service through Clovis, which prompted the nostalgic rail visit.
1973: Today was “Ray J. Lofton Day” in the state of New Mexico, thanks to a proclamation by Gov. Bruce King, which noted that Lofton has “devoted his entire professional career to the education of our youth.”
More than 450 people attended an appreciation reception and dinner held in honor of Lofton and his wife, Pearl, at Eastern New Mexico University’s Campus Union Building.
A former superintendent of the Floyd, Melrose, and Fort Sumner schools, Lofton came to New Mexico from Arkansas in 1907, first living in a half dugout in Hollene.
Dewey Langston, ENMU’s director of athletics, was master of ceremonies for the ceremonies that included presentations from former students at all of Lofton’s schools.
1973: An estimated 28,000 people showed up for a meal in Amarillo that turned out to be every chef’s worst nightmare: an uncooked main dish.
In what was billed as the world’s largest barbecue, hundreds of pounds of beef had been buried in a 150-foot-long underground pit for cooking, but unbeknownst to the those in charge, the coals cooled and the meat didn’t cook.
Instead, the thousands who turned out in honor of the final event of Meat Appreciation Week dined on beans.
Among those in attendance were Oscar winning actor Ben Johnson, cowboy actor Andy Devine, and Rep. Bob Price, Republican of Texas, making his first appearance in his home district since a long hospital stay.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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