Tucumcari graduate dies at 81

Bill Maddox, a Tucumcari graduate who became a longtime news anchor in the Lubbock, Texas, television market, died Dec. 3. He was 81.

According to a story by his longtime employer, KAMC-TV in Lubbock, he anchored the news in Lubbock on KLBK in 1964. He switched to the new KSEL-TV, now KAMC, about four years later.

Maddox retired in May 2013.

La Nell Evetts, a sister of Maddox’s who lives in Tucumcari, said during a telephone interview her brother graduated from Tucumcari High School in 1956 and began his broadcasting career as a teenager at KTNM radio in Tucumcari.

Maddox wrote a book, “The Other Side of the Camera,” about his news-anchor career.

“When I was about eight years old when I began to develop a keen interest and desire to imitate those in the broadcasting business,” he wrote. “I had a small upright lamp (about a foot tall) that had no shade but did have a small red lightbulb that I would put in front of me on a card table.

“I would spend hours sitting on folding chair talking to that lamp, pretending it was a microphone and envisioning myself in my imagined ‘exalted position’ as a famous news or sports commentator ...”

Scott Pelley, a correspondent on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and former anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” cited Maddox as an influence on his television career.

Evetts said Maddox tried to attend the annual Rattler Reunion in Tucumcari each year.

“We would go together and really enjoy ourselves,” she said.

Evetts said Maddox also enjoyed taking his two grandsons to see Taos and Santa Fe.

“He really wanted them to experience New Mexico,” she recalled.

Evetts said her brother’s health took a turn for the worse after he underwent back surgery in May.