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Articles written by Don Mcalavy


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  • Pair promotes preserving Clovis history

    Don McAlavy

    STAFF WRITER [email protected] Fort Sumner has Billy the Kid. Roswell has the UFO. Now a couple of Clovis women are on a mission to introduce Clovis Man to tourists. Lois Lesly Barnes and Bonnie Cook have written letters and are making other efforts to teach the world about Clovis’ past, starting with local residents. “Most people here — for whatever reason — don’t seem to know much about our intriguing history,” Bonnie Cook wrote. Blackwater Draw, located 14 miles southwest of Clovis, has been of interest to historians...

  • Pages past — Sept. 6

    Don McAlavy

    Sept. 4 On this date ... 1976: Exhibitors at the upcoming Curry County Fair were busy preparing entries for the cultural arts division. That included entries for paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs. Don McAlavy and Oblong Jones were among the division organizers. Prizes included $10 for first place, $6 for second place and $4 for third place. 1956: Clovis police made no arrests for the day and received just one criminal complaint. T. M. Reames of 312 Calhoun filed the complaint. He said someone stole four hubcaps...

  • Pages past — Sept. 4

    Don McAlavy

    On this date ... 1976: Exhibitors at the upcoming Curry County Fair were busy preparing entries for the cultural arts division. That included entries for paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs. Don McAlavy and Oblong Jones were among the division organizers. Prizes included $10 for first place, $6 for second place and $4 for third place. 1956: Clovis police made no arrests for the day and received just one criminal complaint. T. M. Reames of 312 Calhoun filed the...

  • Greathouse reunion marks 60 years

    Don McAlavy

    The 60th Greathouse reunion was held July 8-9 in Portales. The group had a potluck meal and shared scrapbooks. President Regina Harris hosted a business meeting. A moment of silence was observed for Don McAlavy, Faye Miller and Austin Hall, who passed. Attending from St. Petersburg, Florida: Katherine, Keevy, Marcile and Orion McAlavy Adairsville, Georgia: Bryan McAlavy Largo, Florida: Raymond, Kim and Katherine Siewert Albuquerque: Richard and Kaylona Young, Sandra Fitch Tucson, Arizona: Wes and Susan Mallory; Madison and...

  • Greathouse reunion marks 60 years

    Don McAlavy

    The 60th Greathouse reunion was held July 8-9 in Portales. The group had a potluck meal and shared scrapbooks. President Regina Harris hosted a business meeting. A moment of silence was observed for Don McAlavy, Faye Miller and Austin Hall, who passed. Attending from St. Petersburg, Florida: Katherine, Keevy, Marcile and Orion McAlavy Adairsville, Georgia: Bryan McAlavy Largo, Florida: Raymond, Kim and Katherine Siewert Albuquerque: Richard and Kaylona Young, Sandra Fitch Tucson, Arizona: Wes and Susan Mallory; Madison and...

  • Stevens: Don McAlavy had a passion for our past

    Don McAlavy

    Don McAlavy was known for many talents. Some knew him best as a historian, others as an artist, and still others as an actor. I knew him as a journalist. McAlavy, 84, died in January after a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease. Memorial services are at 2 p.m. today at Muffley Funeral Home in Clovis. We met in 2001 when I came to work for a group of newspapers that included Clovis. McAlavy was already writing a weekly newspaper column on regional history. He wrote hundreds of n...

  • Opinion: Don McAlavy had a passion for our past

    Don McAlavy

    Editor Don McAlavy was known for many talents. Some knew him best as a historian, others as an artist, and still others as an actor. I knew him as a journalist. McAlavy, 84, died in January after a long bout with Alzheimer’s disease. Memorial services are at 2 p.m. today at Muffley Funeral Home in Clovis. We met in 2001 when I came to work for a group of newspapers that included Clovis. McAlavy was already writing a weekly newspaper column on regional history. He wrote hundreds of newspaper columns in his life, in addition t...

  • Events calendar — July 10

    Don McAlavy

    Today CSA “Fight Against Cancer” Softball Tournament — 8 a.m. Guy Leeder Softball Complex, Sycamore and 14th streets, Clovis. High Plains Historical Foundation — Honoring historian Don McAlavy, 4 p.m. 4H Building, Curry County Fairgrounds, 1900 E. Brady Ave., Clovis. Information: Phil Frazee, 575-714-4022 Monday Movie Monday — 1 p.m. Clovis-Carver Public Library, 701 N. Main St., Clovis. Information: 575-763-9654 Tuesday Big Kids Hour — 10 a.m. Clovis-Carver Public Library, 701 N. Main St., Clovis. Information: 575-763-965...

  • Events calendar — July 8

    Don McAlavy

    Friday Ribbon Cutting 10 Year anniversary — 4 p.m. Mike Morris State Farm, 116 E. 11th St., Clovis. Information: 575-769-3838 Saturday CSA “Fight Against Cancer” Softball Tournament — 8 a.m. Guy Leeder Softball Complex, Sycamore and 14th streets, Clovis. 3rd Annual Auto Show — 10 a.m. Advance Auto Parts, 2109 N. Prince St., Clovis. Information: 575-763-7300 Volunteer Opportunity, Demolition Cleanup — 8 a.m. 404 N. Thornton St., Clovis. Information: 575-359-1344 Volunteer Opportunity, ReStore Donation Pickup — 9 a.m. Habitat R...

  • A look at the lawmen of Clovis' past

    Don McAlavy

    Editor [email protected] More than 30 men — no women — have held the title of Clovis police chief since the city was born in 1907. Doug Ford, 50, became the latest earlier this month when he was named to succeed retiring chief Steve Sanders. A few facts, and some stories, about the chiefs through the years: A modern-day standard • Only one Clovis chief has held the job more than 10 years. Nelson Worley was 27 when he accepted the job as Clovis’ top cop in 1945. He lasted just three years that time, but returned in 1973...

  • Don McAlavy remembered as writer, actor

    Don McAlavy

    Editor [email protected] Most of eastern New Mexico knew Don McAlavy as an actor, a prolific writer, a painter and the unofficial historian of Curry County for decades. Kim Siewert always thought of him as a storybook hero. Courtesy photo Don McAlavy wrote about a dozen books related to eastern New Mexico history. “He is my cowboy,” she said in announcing her father’s death from pneumonia at age 84 on Monday. “He married my mom and she had five kids. We were in Califor...

  • Don McAlavy: For 84 years, he made history

    Don McAlavy

    Editor [email protected]@cnjonline.com Most of eastern New Mexico knew Don McAlavy as an actor, a prolific writer, a painter and the unofficial historian of Curry County for decades. McAlavy celebrated his 80th birthday at a family friend's ranch in Florida. (Courtesy photo) Kim Siewert always thought of him as a storybook hero. “He is my cowboy,” she said in announcing her father’s death from pneumonia at age 84 on Monday. “He married my mom and she had five ki...

  • Group hoping to revive historical foundation

    Don McAlavy

    Editor [email protected] If Patsy Delk could go back in time, she’d like to meet Charles Scheurich, an early day Realtor nicknamed the “father of Curry County.” She’d like to attend the first Curry County Fair. That was held in downtown Clovis about 1909, though it may not have been called the county fair until later. And she’d like to know more about the old Santa Fe hospital — built in 1914, it still stands at Eighth and Hinkle streets in Clovis — and the Lyceum theater, which played the first “talkie” movi...

  • Pages Past

    Don McAlavy

    Aug. 11 On this date ... 1959: Actors and technicians had arrived in Tucumcari for six weeks of filming the “Rawhide” television series. Stars included Clint Eastwood and Sheb Wooley. The series aired from 1959 to 1966. 1955: Burglars had obtained an undetermined amount of narcotics after breaking into the Booth Prescription Pharmacy in Portales. The pharmacist in charge said the burglars took only older types of narcotics, leaving the newer kinds. 1942: Bob Wills, the Kin...

  • Pages past — Aug. 11

    Don McAlavy

    On this date ... 1959: Actors and technicians had arrived in Tucumcari for six weeks of filming the “Rawhide” television series. Stars included Clint Eastwood and Sheb Wooley. The series aired from 1959 to 1966. 1955: Burglars had obtained an undetermined amount of narcotics after breaking into the Booth Prescription Pharmacy in Portales. The pharmacist in charge said the burglars took only older types of narcotics, leaving the newer kinds. 1942: Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, was honeymooning with Betty Anderson at...

  • Pages past — June 21

    Don McAlavy

    On this date ...link 1975: District Attorney Fred Hensley announced he would abandon his private law practice on July 1 and become a full-time district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties. Assistant DAs David W. Bonem and Robert Cochrane also would assume full-time positions as prosecutors on July 1, Hensley said. Full-time status was an option at the time, but the New Mexico Legislature had set Jan. 1, 1977, as the date all of New Mexico’s district attorneys would be r...

  • Pages past — June 21

    Don McAlavy

    On this date ... 1975: District Attorney Fred Hensley announced he would abandon his private law practice on July 1 and become a full-time district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties. Assistant DAs David W. Bonem and Robert Cochrane also would assume full-time positions as prosecutors on July 1, Hensley said. Full-time status was an option at the time, but the New Mexico Legislature had set Jan. 1, 1977, as the date all of New Mexico’s district attorneys would be required to give up private law practices. 1945: B...

  • Pages past — April 29

    Don McAlavy

    On this date …link 1919: Hubert Bell, son of a prominent Clovis real estate dealer, drowned at Dutchman’s Lake, about a mile north of Clovis’ city limits. Historian Don McAlavy reported Hubert, 12, had gone downtown to see an Army tank on display. After looking at the tank, Hubert and friends ran a few races and then decided to go swimming at the lake now known as Greene Acres. McAlavy reported the boy sank in the water for no known reason. His friends, wading on the shore...

  • Pages past — April 29

    Don McAlavy

    On this date … 1919: Hubert Bell, son of a prominent Clovis real estate dealer, drowned at Dutchman’s Lake, about a mile north of Clovis’ city limits. Historian Don McAlavy reported Hubert, 12, had gone downtown to see an Army tank on display. After looking at the tank, Hubert and friends ran a few races and then decided to go swimming at the lake now known as Greene Acres. McAlavy reported the boy sank in the water for no known reason. His friends, wading on the shore, were apparently unable to swim but ran for help. By th...

  • Historical foundation to restart

    Don McAlavy

    Staff Writer [email protected] Protecting the future is about caring for precious resources; but they are not all endless, and many are slipping away. This isn’t a story about water or energy, it’s about an attempt to preserve something less measurable and harder to capture: the memories, mementos, and histories that are found with the people who live here. “I think history is who you are,” Dick Smith said. “If we don’t study history we are doomed to repeat it.” A group of local history buffs want to take up the challenge...

  • Pages past — Aug. 14

    Don McAlavy

    On this date ... 1965: Melrose was expecting 325 students to register for the 1965-66 school year. Superintendent Willard Moon said the number was down from about 350 the year before. Melrose employed 21 teachers in its system and had one new teacher — Wayne Moore, an instructor of physical education. 1955: The annual all-veterans picnic was slated for the Eastern New Mexico University campus. All veterans and their families were welcomed to the basket dinner. Free melons and snow cones were served. 1949: A 3-year-old Grady g...

  • Pages past — Aug. 10

    Don McAlavy

    On this date ... 1959: Actors and technicians arrived in Tucumcari for six weeks of filming the “Rawhide” television series. Stars included Clint Eastwood and Sheb Wooley. The series aired from 1959 to 1966. 1942: Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, said he married for the fifth and last time, in Clovis. Wills honeymooned with Betty Anderson at Wills’ farm near Muleshoe, according to “Those Who Made the Music,” by Don McAlavy. 1928: Jimmy Dean, who made sausage and country music, was born in Olton. His biggest hit was “Big,...

  • From the editor's desk: Happy 100th birthday, house

    Don McAlavy

    link The Perez home Editor Fidel and Teresa Perez are thinking about hosting a birthday party. Their house at 306 E. Ninth St. in Clovis, is 100 this year. Attorney J. S. Fitzhugh built the four-room home with a basement from concrete and wood after his original house on the same property was destroyed by fire in 1913. The Jan. 9, 1914, issue of the Clovis Journal reported the new Fitzhugh home had just been completed and described it as “splendid.” The house, which cost about $10,000 to build a century ago, has und...

  • Editor's Desk: Lake not as inviting as it seems

    Don McAlavy

    Wonderful things happen every summer at Greene Acres Park in downtown Clovis, from skateboarding to tennis, from picnics to fishing. But the 24 acres featuring a lake that’s at least a century old has also been the scene of some of Clovis’ greatest tragedies. The lake has taken the lives of at least three children, including one this month 26 years ago. Aric Arnold was 9 on June 8, 1988, when he braved the water trying to rescue his sister and a cousin who’d ventured in after fishing, according to a witness who helped pull...

  • Monday morning briefing: A new year, and still making history

    Don McAlavy

    Good morning, and welcome to the first Freedom New Mexico Morning Briefing of 2012. You might be reading this from your office or your home, depending on how your business is marking the New Years holiday. The Freedom New Mexico offices are closed, but the newsrooms are still available throughout the day (depending, of course, on reporter schedules). Call 356-4481, ext. 30, for the Portales newsroom, or 763-3431, ext. 313, for the Clovis newsroom. The circulation offices are taking calls in the morning hours, as well. Making...

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