Pages past — July 12

linkOn this date ...

1960: Portales’ garbage pickups were “almost back to normal” after a week off because of heavy rains, the Portales News-Tribune reported.

City Clerk Florence Miller said the trucks could not run because they would become bogged down in the muddy alleys.

1955: Water tables in the Portales Valley had dropped about 20 feet from January 1950 to January 1955, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report.

Another report showed tables dropped 34 feet from 1932 until January 1955.

1955: A California woman visiting friends in Roosevelt County was killed in a rollover southwest of Portales.

Totsy Novella Gomez, 29, was ejected from the car she was driving and tossed 90 feet in the air, The Portales Valley News reported.

Three other women were in the car with Gomez; one was hospitalized with serious injuries and two were not injured, the newspaper reported.

Transitions ...

2014: Bill Ellis, the editor and publisher of the Friona Star newspaper from 1962 to 2003, died at age 77.

A member of the Panhandle Press Association Hall of Fame, he was Friona Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year in 2001.

He wrote, “Friona on Parade,” in 2006, a book chronicling the history of Friona High School sports and academics.

Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:

http://www.highplainsyesterdays.com