Pages past — Aug. 10

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, Bad John,” about a heroic miner. He started the Jimmy Dean Sausage Co. in 1969 in his hometown of Plainview. He was 81 when he died in 2010.

Crime does not pay …

Clovis’ Lyceum Theatre showed re-enactments of the capture and killing of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker on Aug. 10-11, 1934. Officers who took part in the arrest assisted in the filming of the motion picture. Admission was 5 cents for children, 20 cents for adults.

Lucky Lindy was here …

The site for Cannon Air Force Base, which began as a private airport in 1929, was selected by Aviator Charles Lindbergh. He played a major role in establishing the nation’s first commercial transcontinental plane-train service, which included a stop at what was then known as Portair.

Pages Past is compiled by Clovis News Journal Editor David Stevens. Contact him at:

[email protected]