Pages past — July 6

On this date ...

1971: Louis Armstrong, 71, died at his home in New York.

The gravel-voiced singer and jazz trumpeteer had been battling kidney and heart disease for months, but had recently returned home from the hospital and was “practicing an hour a day on his gold-plated trumpet for a return to work,” United Press International reported.

Family members said Armstrong died in his sleep.

He was born July 4, 1900, the son of a housemaid and a turpentine factory worker.

1956: Frank Foster of Clovis was named to the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission.

Gov. John Simms made the announcement.

Foster, who moved to the Hollene community with his family from Oklahoma in 1907, had been an educator in Clovis since 1936.

He was the county school superintendent for four years.

Foster had been a lifelong outdoors enthusiast. His wife, Lois, said he courted her by taking her on rabbit hunts. Hog farmer Doom Evans paid Foster 5 cents a head for rabbits when Foster was a teenager.

“It wasn’t anything in those days for Frank to kill 60-70 rabbits on a Sunday afternoon for Evans to feed to his hogs,” Lois Foster said.

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

www.highplainsyesterdays.com