Clovis mourns the passing of B-Bop the Clown

When Rebecca Holt first heard the news, it brought back a lifetime of memories.

"When I saw his obituary I thought, 'Oh no, B-Bop passed away,'" she said.

"I didn't even know his real name. It is an emotional loss. Our family knew him for years. We have lost an amazing clown. One of our town's own. He shared a lot of love with our community. His wife used to be our kids' music teacher at Zia Elementary."

B-Bop was Jerry Shade. He died Nov. 19 at age 82.

As B-Bop, he was a fixture at the Curry County Fair, the Pioneer Days Parade and well known for popping in at restaurants around town as well as at children's birthday parties for decades.

His entertaining career as B-Bop began about 1993. In a 2014 interview with the Clovis News Journal, he said he created B-Bop because he liked "seeing people happy and having fun. And it's a good way to change your persona. You can hide. You get by with a lot of stuff as a clown," Shade said.

He was more than a favorite entertainer, of course. He was also a dad and granddad, a sign maker, lawn mower repairman, Shriner, Vietnam veteran and more.

Not everyone knew all of that. Just about everyone knew his B-Bop side.

"I didn't know him super personally but knew him when he came into the Chamber to sign up for the parades. He was always very kind and considerate of the community," said Nick Mondragon, a longtime Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce associate.

Kim Tipton, the Chamber's events coordinator, also knew him through his role as entertainer.

"When I was president of the parent-teacher organization at Highland Elementary School he was the clown of our carnival," Tipton said. "He got to know my boys at Highland so whenever he dropped in at restaurants where we were my boys were glad to see him. He was a great guy," Tipton added.

Shade lived in West Virginia, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Portales before moving to Clovis in 1980.

He married Marsha, a native eastern New Mexican, in 1991, and between the two they shared three children and seven grandchildren.

When he was interviewed by The News 10 years ago, he was asked how he handled people who were afraid of clowns.

"First thing you do with kids is back off. I've done birthday parties where the kid wouldn't have a thing to do with me, and before it's over they were up sitting in my lap," he said.

Holt described him as a "very loving, caring, happy clown. He could make any kind of animal from a balloon.

"He put a lot of smiles and giggles to the paths that he crossed," she said.

He was the kind of clown who "didn't scare kids," she said.