In tribute: Lifelong resident Jerry May was 'a real cutup'

Jerry May could always make people laugh, even when he was the target of the laughter.

May, a lifelong resident of Clovis, died June 9.

His wife of 52 years, Sammye May, said they went to high school together in Clovis but connected while attending Eastern New Mexico University. They became acquainted when Jerry was helping her brother-in-law move to San Angelo, Texas.

"We dated a few months and then ran off to Juarez, Mexico and got married in 1969," she said.

He had a college degree in accounting and became the head time keeper for the Southwestern Division of the Santa Fe Railroad in Topeka, Kansas, she said. "He was the big boss."

But what he really wanted to do was drive a train, she said. So he left his office job and went to engineer's school in 1974. He drove a train in Clovis for 35 years.

"He liked to kid and tease - never a dull moment," she said. "He was a go-getter and known mostly for his outgoing personality - never met a stranger."

Jerry picked up a hobby of buying and training racehorses in his 30s, to which his wife said she would buy a bronze of a horse every time he bought a race horse.

"When it's paid for, it's paid and I don't have to pay vet, feeding or training bills."

"She said she told him, "Every time you get a race horse, I am going to get a bronze of a horse.

Son Shane May said his father had a lot of nicknames for his railroad friends.

"It was unbelievable some of the nicknames," Shane May said. "One was Martin Luther and another was Moose Cartwheel. He was a real cutup."

"Everybody wanted to be around him because he made them laugh. He was the life of the party. He liked to drink beer and play cards. That's what those railroaders do."

Nephew Kyle Brewer said Jerry would come every morning to S&S Supermarket for coffee and chat, and that everybody at the store misses him.

"(Jerry) was always smiling," Brewer said, "loved to joke around with people and have a good time."

The two once went to the Independence Bowl to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks. Jerry was enjoying a beer he'd bought and asked Brewer if he wanted one. He bought two more beers, told the kid selling the beers to keep the change and only realized after sitting down he'd paid with a $100 bill.

"I said, 'That's the best $50 beer I've ever had,'" Brewer said. "I think about that story all the time. We talked about it a couple of weeks before he died."