Pages past — April 4

On this date ...link

1970: Area residents woke up “to find it once again snowing,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. Weather officials said Tucumcari received 4 inches of snow and Amarillo had 2 inches, but most of eastern New Mexico managed just a trace of moisture. Records show Clovis received more than 12 inches of snow that season, including 4.5 inches in March. The region averages about 1.5 inches of snow in March and less than 3/10 of an inch in April.

1945: Sgt. Joseph W. Copeland of Causey had been awarded the Silver Star for voluntarily subjecting himself to a concentration of German artillery fire in order to help his comrades, The Portales Daily News reported.

During construction of a road block, the newspaper reported, the enemy concentrated sporadic artillery fire in the area. While Copeland’s classification as a truck driver did not warrant his aid, he voluntarily went to help his fellow soldiers under attack.

He was wounded in the leg by shrapnel, but refused medical aid and remained in the fray.

In national news ...

1940: A Los Angeles woman beat three of her children to death with a claw hammer, then died on a flaming mattress after setting fire to her hair, according to a story published in the Clovis News-Journal.

Lolita Davis, 43, also beat a fourth child, but 11-year-old Chloe was expected to recover, the report read. Officials later determined Lolita Davis killed two of her children and badly injured a third, then asked Chloe to finish the job.

Reports differ as to exactly what happened next, but multiple crime websites report all three children were killed by Lolita Davis and she took her own life by slashing her wrists.

Transitions ...

1995: Dorothy Bauer, 76, died at Plains Regional Medical Center in Clovis. She retired as the registrar at Clovis schools in 1976. She’d been a Clovis resident since 1947 and married professional baseball player Ray “Power” Bauer in 1951. Survivors included her husband and three sons.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. Contact him at: [email protected]