Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date …
1937: Clovis police were on the lookout for two 11-year-old boys from Sudan, Texas, who had run away from home. One was dressed in a khaki suit and black cowboy boots, while the other was wearing striped overalls and a baseball cap.
1940: Rail traffic was moving uninterrupted between Clovis and Lubbock, but cleanup continued a mile west of Muleshoe where 31 train cars derailed two days earlier.
Officials said cars loaded with potash, wheat and cotton had been moved to either side of the Santa Fe tracks, while trucks picked up the commodities.
1957: Jane Burroughs was installed as the new president of the Portales High School chapter of Future Teachers of America in a candlelight ceremony conducted by Miss Mae Gilbert and Miss Ona Dodd, sponsors of the organization.
Other officers installed were Loretta House, vice president; Jim Bullock and Eddie Parker, treasurers; Kay Keene, secretary; Beverly Douglas, historian; Nan Burroughs, parliamentarian; Katherine Lehman, song leader; and Jan Stratton, reporter.
1960: New Mexico Gov. John Burroughs accused three Portales men of “bungling” an attempt to recruit a business to town.
The men spent $600 of Chamber of Commerce funds to travel to New Jersey, only to find the business was not looking to relocate, but was for sale.
The men had claimed the state’s Department of Development sent them on a wild goose chase, United Press International reported.
Burroughs said the men did not understand “how the state industrial revenue bond law works.”
1961: More than 5,000 head of cattle were headed to Clovis for the 14th annual Clovis Cattle Festival.
In addition to sales, more than $1,000 worth of prizes were planned for owners of winning show cattle.
A ladies style show was also planned for the Country Club.
1962: Ninety percent of area residents interviewed by the Clovis News-Journal supported President Kennedy’s blockade of Cuba to prevent military goods from Russia reaching the communist outpost. But not everyone agreed. “Damn Democrats are bound to get us into another war!” the paper quoted one anonymous source.
1962: Clovis Civil Defense Director George Scales said city residents would know about an atomic attack “almost as soon as the military.”
Scales said the emergency system in place would notify him at the same time military forces were notified. He would then pass on the warning to civilians through local radio and television stations.
“Civilians would be warned which direction to leave town if it became necessary to do so,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. “However, Scales pointed out Clovis is not a prime target area.”
1964: A city audit revealed Clovis’ general fund receipts exceeded budgeted revenue for the fiscal year by more than $113,000. Property tax was $87,000 above the $350,000 estimate.
1966: Boycotting housewives, unhappy with the rising cost of groceries, spurred local Cashway stores to “initiate a reduction in services in order to hold the line on prices,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Cashway executives said they would reduce the number of hours the stores were opened, discontinue a giveaway game and add an “economy line” of meats and produce.
Local Cashway store officials said their new hours would be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except Sundays, which would 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
1967: Barbed wire collector Vic Stout was profiled in the Clovis News-Journal as a local man who was “really hooked on his hobby.”
Stout had gathered 160 different strands in his collection, including three pieces of entanglement wire used by the Germans and Americans during World War II.
Stout’s earliest sample was three-strand machine-made wire, first manufactured in 1885.
He also had 18 types of Glidden wire, named for the rancher credited with inventing the fencing used throughout the west.
1973: Clovis’ Hilltop Twin theater was showing “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” and “Jeremiah Johnson.” Both played twice a night.
1975: Clovis school officials were offering a $200 reward for information leading to the arrest of vandals.
Superintendent L.W. Byous said more than $2,000 in damage had been done at Clovis High School.
One day later, police in Fort Sumner picked up three Clovis runaways suspected in the case.
The youth had tempera paint and “sauce-like” stains on their clothing that tied them to the vandalism.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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