Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A pril showers bring ... memories of some historical residents of eastern New Mexico.
Washington Lindsey, Jerry Nuzum, Black Jack Ketchum and Julie McKinney all died in the month that begins again this week.
For those younger than 100:
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• Lindsey, a longtime Portales school board member, helped form Roosevelt County before he became New Mexico’s third governor. He was 63 when he died April 5, 1926. He’s buried in Portales.
As Portales’ mayor from 1910 to 1916, he’s credited with leading the charge for municipal light, water and sewer projects. He also ran the local saloons out of town, according to Suzanne Stamatov, writing for newmexicohistory.org.
That’s the statued version of Lindsey outside the Roosevelt County Courthouse.
• Nuzum was Clovis’ first professional football player, rushing 930 yards and scoring seven touchdowns over four seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1948-1951). His career ended amid false allegations he killed a Las Cruces teenager.
While Cricket Coogler’s killer was never brought to justice, Nuzum was cleared at trial. A witness reported she had watched two state police officers chase and beat Coogler before putting her into their car, Milan Simonich wrote for the NM Capitol Report in 2011.
Still, Nuzum said the tragedy haunted him the rest of his life.
“It was so embarrassing to be accused of a crime like that,” Nuzum told the El Paso Herald-Post in 1983. “You can’t ever live it down. It’s a shame that people sometimes hear my name and they don’t say anything about my being a car dealer or playing four years for the Steelers. They say, ‘He was the one in that case.’”
Nuzum died April 23, 1997, at age 73.
• They hung Ketchum so hard his head came off on April 26, 1901. The good folks of Clayton had no experience hanging outlaws, so they likely underestimated Ketchum’s weight, which resulted in his beheading.
The Galveston Daily News reported Ketchum talked for over an hour with visitors on the morning of his demise.
He confessed to some crimes but denied others, claiming he’d never killed a man and only shot three.
Indeed, no one died in the botched train robbery that resulted in his last arrest.
He ate a hearty breakfast the morning of his hanging, took a bath and called for music, the Galveston newspaper reported. Death was preferable to imprisonment, he said.
The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper reported his last words were: “Goodbye. Please dig my grave very deep. All right, hurry up.”
• McKinney’s story is not told so often, but might be the most interesting of all.
After she died at age 108 on April 4, 2004, the Clovis News Journal reported she had been known for the unique way she woke up her fellow nursing home residents — she crowed like a rooster.
She was believed to be the region’s oldest resident when she passed.
“She’s the sweetest woman we ever met, never mean or ornery,” said Dori Turvey, a nurse at Laurel Ridge Health Care Center where McKinney spent the last 18 years of her life.
“She still had her original teeth, but one on the front was really hurting her. (The dentist) pushed on that tooth, and she flew up with her fist and hit him. The dentist just looked at me and said ‘wow.’ You could tell she still had some fire in her.”
David Stevens is editor for Clovis Media Inc. Next week, he’ll write about local historical figures who were born in April, including science fiction writer Jack Williamson and actor/musician Sheb Wooley. Contact Stevens at: