Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
On this date ...
1969: A district-court jury awarded $50,000 to Tucumcari City Commissioner Peter Gonzales, his wife and his son, Peter, against Dr. Ray F. Goddard, Lovelace Clinic and the clinic’s board of directors. In 1965, 3-year-old Peter was experiencing abdominal pains. According to testimony, Goddard told the family the boy’s problem was psychosomatic. A key witness, Dr. Henry S. Sauls of University of Minnesota Hospital, testified Peter’s intestines were in an abnormal position, causing pain and difficulty in digesting food. After Peter became violently ill, he was rushed to a hospital, where a doctor found an obstruction, making it necessary to remove all but 10 inches of his intestines to save his life. It took Peter 11 months to recover at the University of Minnesota Hospital.
• The newspaper announced spelling practice books, “Words of the Champions,” had arrived and were on sale for 25 cents each. The books present typical words to prepare spelling-bee entrants they might expect in competitions, including the national finals in Washington, D.C.