Good day to remember the Loves

With Valentine’s Day a day away, this seems a good time to tell a Love story.

It’s two Love stories, actually.

Frank Love met Lillian Nicholson in Vaughn in the early 1920s.

He was a railroad man. She was the daughter of a Baptist preacher.

Frank Love served four years in the U.S. Navy before joining the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He worked for the railroad 42 years — mostly in Clovis — and was chief ticket clerk for more than 20 years.

Frank Love loved sports. He played baseball, bowled and played golf much of his life. He was secretary of the Clovis Bowling Association for many years.

Lillian Love was an active community volunteer and one of New Mexico’s first dealers in Stanley Home Products. She worked 28 years for Stanley and was a “Unit Sales Leader” many times, even setting company records for sales.

She was active in Clovis’ Friendship Rebekah Lodge, Woodmen of the World, Odd Fellows and other service organizations.

A 1957 newspaper article reported “Lillian Love and her ‘Music Maids’ received a lot of laughs and applause with their rendition of ‘That Old Irish Wiggle.’” The story did not explain what that was, but you got the idea it was pretty fun.

A 1941 newspaper story reported she helped raise money for the Woodmen by hosting a “waist measuring contest.” Each club member was charged a penny for each inch around their waist.

Life wasn’t all joy for the Loves, especially during the Great Depression.

“Frank worked 7 days a week and no vacation, let alone a paid vacation,” Lillian wrote in a family history book published in 1980.

“Then there were the terrible dust storms of the thirties when one couldn’t think of leaving the house for fear of not finding the way back.

“One thing that made life bearable was the passenger trains that we could ride free on our railroad passes.”

The Loves were married about 40 years.

Frank was 67 when he died from a heart condition in his Clovis home in 1967.

Lillian married Elmer Dazey in 1970. She was 81 when she died in a local nursing home in 1986.

There are no streets named for Frank or Lillian Love. They did not change the world beyond their family and friends. Their obituaries did not make the front page of their hometown newspaper.

But it’s fun to think about Frank and Lillian riding the passenger trains for fun. Frank probably talked to strangers about baseball or bowling. Lillian probably sold some Stanley.

And can’t you just see Lillian and the Music Maids performing “That Old Irish Wiggle,” whatever it was?

Happy Valentine’s Day, to the Loves.

David Stevens writes about regional history. Contact him at:

[email protected]

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