Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1941: “Old Sol” burst through to give the region its first sunshine in 14 days, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Spring rains began April 22 and this was the first cloudless morning since, according to the newspaper.
The year’s rainfall total was at 8.31 inches — just 2 inches shy of the total for all of 1940.
1945: White Auto Store held its grand opening at 115 SW State St. in Portales.
J.B. Morrow was owner/manager of the auto parts and home appliance store.
1955: The Elida Tigers were celebrating their regional Class B baseball championship. They had defeated Forrest, 13-3, the day before.
Ronald Berry had a first-inning grand slam to set the pace for Elida, which qualified for the state tournament with the win.
1955: Eastern New Mexico University was ready to host the 20th annual Ag Club Rodeo.
The two-day run included a parade, rodeo performances and an all-university dance.
1961: President Kennedy signed into law a bill gradually raising the minimum wage from $1 an hour to $1.25 an hour.
“I don’t believe there is an American who believes that any man or woman working in interstate commerce should receive less than $1.25 an hour or $50 a week,” the president said.
A federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour was established in 1938.
1961: The Eastern New Mexico University Ag Club kicked off its 26th annual rodeo at the Roosevelt County Mounted Patrol Arena west of the fairgrounds.
Sixty-five entries competed in six events, including 12 high school seniors.
1968: O.C. "Pete" Stansell was the new owner of Jameson's Highland Supermarket in the Highland Shopping Center in Clovis.
Stansell and his wife moved to Clovis in 1941 from Amarillo, where he was an employee of the Panhandle Fruit Company.
After four years of service in World War II, he returned to Clovis and served for 22 years as a salesman for Panhandle Fruit serving Clovis, Portales, and Farwell. For the past year, he had co-owned J.O.'s Food Store.
Stansell and his wife had one son, Mark, who was 12.
1969: Funeral services were being planned for longtime Clovis businessman Armand Mandell, 82, who died a day earlier.
Mandell came to the United States from France in 1901. He settled in Clovis in 1909.
Mandell’s Clothing and Dry Goods was a Clovis downtown staple for more than 35 years.
The store was located in the 300 block of Main Street when Mandell sold out to Dunlap’s in 1946.
1969: The Clovis Civil Defense Board was meeting with area law enforcement officials to consider establishing a “tornado advance alert system,” according to the Clovis News-Journal.
Charles H. Crouch, chief meteorologist at the U.S. Weather Bureau in Amarillo, was planning to speak to the board about how the bureau could contribute to the cause.
The primary focus of the group was to determine the “best means of getting weather information to news media and the public.”
1983: New Mexico was considering phasing out its mechanical voting machines and replacing them with a computerized system if the "computerized machines pass tough state tests," according to an Associated Press article out of Albuquerque.
Hoyt Clifton, director of the state Bureau of Elections, said New Mexico's 1,841 voting machines had been in use since the 1950s.
A contract had been signed to start testing new computerized voting machines in the physical science laboratory at New Mexico State University.
One argument for the upgrade was that the old voting machines could only accommodate 50 candidates. The proposed computerized systems had no such limitations.
1987: Clovis city commissioners said they would take the lead in “an effort for positive action in obtaining water from Ute Lake Reservoir,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Clovis leaders hoped to form a joint powers agreement with other area communities to form the Ute Reservoir Water Commission. That commission would be charged with planning to construct a pipeline to ship water from the reservoir as far south as Portales.
Clovis City Attorney Michael Garrett drafted the JPA to include Clovis, Tucumcari, Portales, San Jon, Texico, Melrose, San Jon, Texico, Logan, Elida, Grady and Cannon Air Force Base.
“Whether these small communities grow and prosper, or whether they dwindle and disappear will depend on their receiving a good source of water such as that at Ute Lake,” said Leland Tillman of the Eastern Plains Council of Governments.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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