Pages past — March 11

March 11

On this date ...link

1965: A 23-year-old Clovis man armed with a butcher knife attempted to rob the Pink Pony bar near Taiban. The Clovis News-Journal reported “someone at the establishment” pulled a gun and shot at the would-be robber, who then fled in a 1961 automobile with Oklahoma license plates. The man suffered a “slight” gunshot wound and was arrested the same afternoon between Melrose and Floyd.

1955: Mildred Terry, a freshman at Eastern New Mexico University, had been named winner of a 4-H state achievement award. She was in her ninth year of 4-H work.

1955: The Portales Daily News began publishing the Portales Valley News weekly. Publishers explained that some Roosevelt County residents would be better served by a weekly paper because of sparse mail delivery.

In entertainment news ...

1970: Blood, Sweat & Tears won the Grammy award for best album of 1969, besting the Beatles and Johnny Cash. The best new artists were Crosby, Stills & Nash, United Press International reported.

Transitions ...

1955: Mattie Polston, 57, died in the Bataan Memorial Hospital in Albuquerque following a five-week illness. She and her husband, Rev. F. O. Polston, had been engaged in Baptist missionary work for 20 years in the Melrose and Portales areas.

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

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