Serving the High Plains
On this date ...
1969: Two Tucumcari residents died in separate traffic accidents. A two-car collision at Choctaw and High streets killed a 6-year-old girl and injured five people. Her grandparents owned the Leatherwood and Apache motels on Route 66 in Tucumcari. A 17-year-old man died on Highway 18 when the vehicle he was driving blew a tire, lost control and rolled several times.
• The body of Francisco M. Garcia Jr., who died in Vietnam on April 26, will arrive in Clovis on the Santa Fe train this evening. Garcia was born in Tucumcari and graduated from Tucumcari High School in 1967. Entering the U.S. Army in April 1968, he had spent about nine months in Vietnam at the time of his death. He was a member of St. Anne’s Catholic Church.