Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Pages-past
On this date ...
1976: Construction costs for Clovis’ new hospital were going to exceed an architect’s estimate by about 14 percent, the advisory board of Clovis Memorial Hospital had learned.
The board was scrambling to come up with almost $800,000.
The plan was to cut back on some equipment purchases, make limited alterations to the building plans and host a fund-raising drive when groundbreaking was scheduled in mid-November.
The Amarillo-Lubbock firm of Page and Wirtz had submitted the low bid of $6.6 million to construct what would become Plains Regional Medical Center.
1966: A 1964 Muleshoe High School graduate had been killed in Vietnam.
Steven Hatfield, 21, was a Navy hospital corpsman attached to a Marine battalion.
He’d been in the war zone about six months. The Department of Defense said his death was caused by a hand grenade while “in a defensive position” in South Vietnam.
1956: Rock star Elvis Presley had been cleared of disorderly conduct charges after an incident at a service station in Memphis, Tennessee.
The station attendant had claimed Presley gave him a black eye after the attendant was unable to fix Presley’s car.
The attendant said a police officer held him with his arms pinned to his side while Presley hit him. Police said the man hit Presley first and that Presley slugged him in response.
Presley could not immediately be reached by reporters seeking comment after the court appearance.
A United Press reporter who called Presley’s home was told he was “in the back yard feeding the mule,” and could not come to the phone.
Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:
