Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Pages-past
On this date ...
1961: An Eastern New Mexico University business fraternity had backed off plans to host a Teamsters Union speaker following criticism from the publisher of the Portales News-Tribune.
Gordon Greaves said the Teamsters Union of Jimmy Hoffa had been repudiated by the vast majority of organized labor in the United States and had been branded by a Senate investigating committee as corrupt, with a preference for ex-convicts, extortioners and embezzlers as its organizers and labor-management specialists.
Carlos Cunningham, president of the Sigma Delta Pi fraternity, said instead labor representative from the American Federation of Labor would speak at the group’s gathering.
1956: A spring sandstorm termed “vicious,” by United Press and other media outlets, closed roads and was blamed for three traffic deaths in the Texas Panhandle.
The storm also spit snow across eastern New Mexico and the Panhandle.
But dirt caused most of the problems locally. The Clovis News-Journal reported 50 mph winds led to “one of the worst dust storms in several years.
“Everything loose was being picked up and carried a considerable distance.”
1941: A pilot and student trainer were killed when their plane crashed south of Clovis in a plowed field.
Instructor W.J. “Slim” Dresser died instantly, officials said. Eastern New Mexico University student Roy Bain, 22, died the next morning in the Clovis hospital.
Officials said the training plane had only arrived at the advanced training facility in Portales a day before the crash.
Pages Past is compiled by Editor David Stevens. For more regional history, check out his weblog at:
