Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date ...
1947: The bodies of two Clovis men had been found in the cabin of their chartered plane, which crashed about 20 miles from their destination of Eagle Nest Lake.
Jimmie Gressett and John Hardisty, both 21-year-old pilots, were planning to go fishing.
Officials said their plane crashed into the side of a narrow canyon near the top of a mountain.
1950: Final plans for the new Portales Hotel were in the hands of the Lambie Construction Co.
Orders were being rushed for all materials needed to complete the structure, the Portales Daily News reported.
1951: Authorities in Ranchvale were investigating a theft at Herb Baker’s store.
The Clovis News-Journal reported a thief unlatched a screen at the back of the store, rang up the 2 cents sign on the cash register and walked out the front door with $26.
About $20 in change was left behind.
Baker was attending a church revival service about a block away at the time of the theft, officials said.
1955: Bethel farmers Cecil and Lyndon Stevens played host to a special guest — their 103-year-old grandmother, Mrs. E.J. Vaughn.
Vaughn, from Silverton, Texas, said her January birthday has been the focus of large gatherings and photo opportunities for each of the past five or six years.
“I don’t see why they take on so over me,” she told a newspaper reporter.
She described herself as an “old-school Presbyterian,” who did not like extracurricular activities on Sundays, especially expectations for housewives to prepare large Sunday dinners. “A woman never gets a Sunday rest,” she said.
She offered no advice for living a long life other than saying she always ate whatever she wanted.
Though hard of hearing, she was plenty mobile with use of a cane and had a sharp tongue. When told a grandson described her as “like a spring chicken,” she told the reporter, “He talks too much. He should mind his own business.”
1957: The Clovis Board of Education inspected and accepted the new W.D. Gattis Junior High school building.
The building, on 14th and Cameo, was named in honor of W.D. Gattis, the principal of the La Casita Elementary School for 37 years.
1957: During the first six months of the year, 180 telephones were gained by Clovis, according to the Mountain States Telephone Co.
C.H. Forester, manager of MSTC, said this is slightly less than in 1956. The number of phones now in Clovis was 8,428.
1958: Sears Roebuck and Co. announced its grand opening was "coming soon" at 701 Main St. in Clovis.
A newspaper ad read:
"(W)hen Mother, bless her heart, puts a stack of hot, mouth-watering wheat cakes in front of you -- done to a turn and so light you could blow 'em away like dandelion fuzz -- you don't ask her how she does it ... no, Sir, you just say 'yum yum' and go to it!
"All right, by the same token, when Sears hands you upstairs quality at basement prices, you don't ask us how we do it, you just fondle the money that you've got left in your pocket and say 'No fooling ... Sears is one place where good quality costs less.'"
The new store - where Clovis-Carver Public Library sits today - was going to be air conditioned "for your Shopping Comfort!" the ad read.
1961: Clovis police were investigating the theft of about $400 from J.D.’s Drive Inn.
The thief (or thieves) broke a window in the rear of the building to gain entrance “and evidently went straight to where the cash box was hidden,” according to a police report.
Nothing else was taken, the Clovis News-Journal reported.
1971: Clovis city commissioners had approved a new city charter, which would go to voters for approval.
The charter called for continuation of a commission-city manager form of government, but with seven commissioners instead of five.
The mayor, according to the proposed charter, would be elected among the seven commissioners.
1971: New Mexico tax collectors were on the lookout for more than 50,000 galloping ghosts.
The state had recorded about 24,000 horses in compiling its annual property tax on livestock. But the State Livestock Board was reporting it had issued 70,000 free vaccinations for Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis. And the state expected to issue at least 10,000 to 20,000 more free vaccines before the federal program was over.
Where were the missing horses? Some of them were in Santa Fe County, according to The Associated Press.
AP reported only 16 horses were on the tax rolls in Santa Fe County, but the Santa Fe Equine Clinic had administered about 1,400 of the VEE vaccines over the past two weeks.
Not every horse vaccinated in Santa Fe, of course, also lived in Santa Fe, but the state’s chief tax assessment officer was planning to compare shot records with the tax rolls in hopes of finding the ghost horses.
Officials said the average horse had a $30 tax valuation. They estimated New Mexico was home to about 100,000 horses. NM Attorney General David Norvell said counties would be able to collect back taxes on the unrecorded horses, if they could locate them.
1974: A back yard at 217 Lincoln was the site of “probably the largest amount of fresh marijuana ever recovered in Clovis,” the Clovis News-Journal reported.
Police found 814 plants, or 28 ounces of the illicit weed.
A 22-year-old man was charged with possession. His bond was set at $3,000.
Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens and Betty Williamson. Contact:
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