The USS Kirk was a Naval ship that led what many consider the United States’ greatest humanitarian mission.

It’s credited with rescuing tens of thousands of South Vietnamese desperate to leave Vietnam in the spring of 1975.

Weldon Kirk has no connection to the ship’s namesake — Adm. Alan Goodrich Kirk, director of the office of Naval intelligence in the early 1940s — but he was aboard the destroyer throughout its rescue runs.

He told its story to Clovis News Journal readers firsthand via letters to his parents, Clovis residents Dottie and Emery Kirk, in May of 1975. (The newspaper pages are linked below.)

Weldon Kirk, retired from the Navy and living in Chesapeake, Va., has been thinking about those days again because the USS Kirk has been in the news again.

A rescued family has organized a reunion for those involved, set for April 12 in Garden Grove, Calif.

Weldon Kirk has misplaced the letters to his parents, who are both deceased. So he’s trying to find the newspaper articles published in May 1975, so that he might donate them for publication on the website www.kirk1087.org, which is dedicated to the ship’s memory.

I found three articles on newspaperarchive.com, but the one published May 23, 1975, ends with a tease to at least one more story, which I’ve been unable to locate.

Anyone remember this series of reports and maybe have a copy of any of them, especially anything after after May 23?

Weldon Kirk can be contacted at emerykirk@cox.net

Kirk May 21, 1975Kirk May 22, 1975Kirk May 23, 1975

He was born and raised in black and white — where the wind blows hard across the Texas Plain — in Littlefield, Texas.

And wherever his travels took him across America, he was always proud to be from Texas, where Bob Wills was still the king.

He and his buddy Willie took us all to Luckenbach, Texas, where ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain.

He told us he was for law and order, the way that it should be. In the end, he thought that outlaw bit had done got out of hand.

He told us stories about folks making their way the only way they know how.

And he made us appreciate good-hearted women who love good-timing men.

It was his mama who said the pistol is the devil’s right hand.

He urged mamas everywhere not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys — because they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone, even with someone they love.

He always was different, with one foot over the line; winding up somewhere one step ahead or behind.

He saw preachers and pushers selling the same thing — high.

But in his own way, he was a believer. He believed in a loving Father, one he never had to fear.

We know he’d always been crazy, but it kept him from going insane.

Hard to believe Waylon Jennings has been gone 10 years this week. I miss ol’ Hoss.

I grew up in Muleshoe and have been hearing about Old Josh Blocher all my life.

My dad (John Stevens), grandmother (Edith Gilliland) and uncle (J.R. King) all shared encounters with him. They claimed he had issues with women, seldom bathed and ate from garbage cans, but was far more character than crazy and had a wonderful singing voice and gentle disposition.

The hermit of Progress (that’s a tiny community located just off the highway that connects Muleshoe to Farwell) was murdered in August 1951. The convicted killers, Thomas Livesay and Lester Stevens (no relation that I know about) provided most of the details of Blocher’s death, each claiming the other beat the man with a soda pop bottle and pistol.

Most of what I’ve learned about Blocher’s death came from former Amarillo Daily News Regional Editor Mary Kate Tripp and stories she’s written on the topic.

Katie told me she once feared the newspaper was somewhat responsible for the slaying since one of her correspondents had profiled the eccentric Blocher just a few days before he was killed. In researching the story 31 years later, she was relieved to learn one of Blocher’s killers knew about the hermit at least four years before trying to steal his treasure.

Katie Tripp wrote the ultimate Blocher story for the Aug. 14, 1982, Amarillo newspaper, and that’s the source of most of the three columns I wrote on Blocher for the Portales News-Tribune. (They’re also on this blog.)

Here are a few more details in the Amarillo paper story that did not make my columns:

• Livesay told police that Blocher was happy to show property to his visitors and even sang them a song before realizing they planned to rob him.

• The killers tried to give Blocher drugged soda and candy in hopes the altered state of mind would inspire him to reveal the location of his supposed riches. He refused both, saying they were bad for his stomach.

• While Blocher lived alone, he had multiple relatives, including two sisters and more than 30 nieces and nephews.

• Blocher’s possessions included several books. Their topics ranged from theology to sex to phrenology, the science of character reading by means of the shape of the subject’s skull.

• • •

Since the columns on Blocher began appearing in the Portales paper, I’ve received three phone calls and an e-mail from area residents who had ties to Blocher.

One reader said he and young friends once surrounded Blocher on their horses to see what he might do. He did nothing but watch them and the boys rode away, ashamed of their prank.

Another told of family members who saw Blocher rummage through trash generated by the lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Clovis.

The best story came via e-mail from a former Muleshoe resident who had a surprise encounter with Blocher just a few weeks or months before his death. The Glen Stevens referenced is my uncle (who says he was too young and does not remember the story).

The e-mail is from Wayne Miller, who now lives in Saint Jo, Texas.

• • •

My family lived in Muleshoe from 1949 to 1953. Our house was on the Clovis highway across from the Santa Fe tracks to the south. (There’s a McDonald’s there now.)

Josh Blocher would walk to town every day and was always on our side of the road. The kids that lived in the area were scared to death of him.

Each time we would see him walking our way we would run and hide until he had passed.

One day Glen Stevens and I were in the vacant lot behind our house digging a hole, looking for a lost gold mine. We were busy and didn’t see old Josh coming up the road.

We heard a noise and looked up and there he stood, smelly and dirty with a sad look on his face.

Josh asked why we always ran away from him.

Both of us were scared stiff. Finally Glen said, “Because we are scared of you.”

Josh made a grunt, grumbling sound and said, “There is no reason to be afraid of me. I’m just an old man and couldn’t hurt anybody.”

He asked what we were doing. We both replied we were digging for the lost gold mine.

Josh said, “Gold mine? A gold mine? And you people think I am crazy!”

He started walking away, turned and said, “Don’t fall in that mine when you find it.”

From that day on, when he passed we didn’t run anymore. Some days Josh would call out, “How are my little friends today?”

My father was meat market manager at Piggly Wiggly in Muleshoe. He would tell stories of Josh going through the trash every day for food items. Dad would throw out old meat that didn’t sell and also cheese and lunchmeat.

Dad told us several years later that about once a week he would wrap a good whole chicken in butcher paper with ice and put it in the trash also for Josh to have something decent to eat.

One day Josh was going through the trash when Dad came out to dump a box of old meat and Josh said, “Thank you, Mr. Manager, for the good chickens.”

Those were the only words spoken from him to Dad.

I remember very well feeling sad when we learned he had been killed.

The story we all heard was, of course, that the killer(s) were looking for all the money Josh had buried at his old shack. Most people and all the kids thought he was a rich old man who was just crazy.

Thanks for writing about old Josh. I suspect he was mostly a good fellow.

Robbery was immediately suspected as the motive for the 1951 slaying of Old Josh Blocher.

The hermit who started the community of Progress, located between Muleshoe and Farwell, had long been rumored to have money hidden away somewhere.

He owned the land where he lived and for decades peddled the lots in hopes Progress could live up to its name as an economic focal point for the region.

He sold several of the lots, but never seemed to spend money, not even on food. Multiple reports had him scrounging through the leftovers of area lunch counters and grocery stores, from Clovis to Muleshoe.

When Thomas Livesay and Lester Stevens were charged with Blocher’s murder in October 1951, they told authorities they were after his supposed riches, the Amarillo Daily News reported.

But after beating Blocher and leaving him to die in a Bailey County cotton field, the killers netted just 13 cents found in Blocher’s wallet.

Livesay and Stevens told investigators they searched Blocher’s one-room shack, even digging in its dirt floor, but found no money.

The old man had $4 in his bank account when he died, the Amarillo paper reported.

But when law officers searched Blocher’s shack and disposed of the accumulated trash, they found three fruit jars buried in the dirt, each stuffed with cash.

It totaled $9,000, Sheriff Hugh Freeman told reporters. That’s about $75,000 in today’s economy.

The Clovis News Journal, Portales News-Tribune and Quay County Sun have been sold to Clovis Media Inc., a new company based in Sheridan, Wyo., officials announced on Tuesday.

The sale also includes all of the publications produced by the group now known as Freedom Newspapers of New Mexico.

Here’s a brief history of each newspaper:

Clovis News Journal
• The Clovis News first published in May 1907. Founder Arthur Curren said the newspaper office at 113 W. Grand was the third “complete business house” in the city’s history, joining the Dolly Yossett restaurant and Doc Jenkins’ Turf Saloon.

• By 1909, the News had competition, primarily from the Clovis Journal, founded by future New Mexico Gov. Thomas J. Mabry.

• As the city’s population steadily increased, from 3,255 in 1910 to nearly 8,000 the next two decades, the News and Journal competed for news and advertisers.

In 1929, Mack Stanton of Tennessee purchased both papers and merged them into the Clovis Evening News-Journal.

• Then on Dec. 2, 1935, Freedom Newspapers founders R.C. Hoiles and C.H. Hoiles of Santa Ana, Calif., announced they had purchased the Evening News-Journal from Stanton. In more than 76 years under Freedom’s umbrella, the paper evolved into the Clovis News Journal, losing its hyphen in 1990, and changing publication cycle from afternoon to morning in 2002.

Portales News-Tribune
• The first Portales newspaper, The Progress, began weekly publication on Aug. 1, 1901. The Portales Herald followed in 1902, just before the Portales Times launched and eventually merged with the Herald.

• Other early day Portales newspapers included the Portales Journal and the Portales Valley News — grandparents of today’s Portales News-Tribune.

J.G. Greaves, who worked on newspapers throughout the Southwest, bought the Journal and Valley News in 1920 and began publishing the Valley News weekly.

• In 1935, the Valley News became a daily with a new name — Portales Daily News. In 1945, Greaves sold the paper to his son, Gordon Greaves, and son-in-law M.M Stinnett. Then in 1957, the Daily News merged with its competition, The Tribune, which started in 1935. The families of Greaves, Stinnett and Earl Stratton began operating the paper they called the Portales News-Tribune.

• Southern Newspapers Inc., of Houston purchased the paper from the families in 1981 and operated it until Freedom Communications Inc., of Irvine, Calif., bought it in 1997. The News-Tribune changed to a morning publication cycle when Clovis did in 2002.

Quay County Sun
• Tucumcari’s newspapers date to 1902 and number at least 14. But the Quay County Sun didn’t launch its weekly product until Nov. 2, 1975. That’s when Santa Rosa’s Ron Doyle began publishing competition for the Tucumcari Daily News, which started in 1921.

• By 1979, the Daily News was out of business and the Sun — named in honor of the Tucumcari Sun (published from 1907 to 1921) — became the county’s primary news source.

• Portales News-Tribune Publishing Co., bought the Quay County Sun in the late 1970s or early ‘80s, Stinnett family members said.

Southern Newspapers purchased the Sun at the same time it bought PNT in 1981, then Freedom bought the Quay and PNT papers in 1997.

Sources: “Clovis, New Mexico: The First 100 Years;” “Portales, New Mexico: The First 100 Years;” and “Tucumcari Centennial Edition.”

Old Josh Blocher’s supposed wealth got him killed in 1951.

Lester Stevens heard rumors the Bailey County hermit was rich in 1947, when he was working on a Bailey County road project.

By 1951, Stevens was working at an Amarillo lead smelter, where he became acquainted with co-worker Thomas Livesay, the Amarillo Daily News reported.

The men told their story of a “treasure hunt” to Amarillo police about two months after Blocher was found dead in a cotton field west of Muleshoe:

They drove to Blocher’s one-room shack in Progress after work the afternoon of Aug. 11, 1951, the Amarillo newspaper reported.

They told Blocher they were interested in purchasing land in the area and coaxed him into Livesay’s car.

First, they searched Blocher’s wallet where they found just 13 cents. When he refused to tell them where he kept his riches, at least one of the men beat him with a pistol and soda bottle and tried to loosen his tongue with barbiturates.

Then they removed most of his clothes and dumped his battered body in the field, six miles northwest of Progress, where two young farmers found him dead about 36 hours later.

Livesay and Stevens returned to Blocher’s shack and rummaged through his belongings, but found nothing.

The Amarillo paper reported the pair was arrested on Oct. 3, 1951, after Livesay’s wife voiced concerns her husband had been involved in Blocher’s death.

Both men were convicted of murder and ultimately received life sentences.

(Next week, I’ll tell you whether Blocher had more than 13 cents. And, no, I am not related to Lester Stevens.)

Old Josh Blocher had a problem with Muleshoe.

He said its residents were thieves, stealing the Bailey County seat that belonged to the community Blocher created seven miles to the west, called Progress.

Blocher had no love for Farwell residents either. He called them devils. He said they claimed Lariat was the only stop between Muleshoe and the state line — intentionally ignoring Progress and its 300 residents.

But those who knew him told the Amarillo Daily News that Blocher didn’t really have any enemies.

J.R. King, my uncle who once lived near Blocher, said he was more character than cantankerous, and that he had an angelic singing voice.

Mary Kate Tripp, longtime regional editor for the Amarillo newspaper, reported Blocher came from Kansas, where he had been a hypnotist with a traveling tent show before moving to Texas.

“… (H)e even ran for public office shortly after setting up shop as entrepreneur of Progress …” Tripp wrote.

But by 1951, at age 85, he lived alone in a one-room shack with a dirt floor, drank rainwater, ate spoiled canned fruit, read books on personal magnetism and theology, and walked four miles for his mail so it wouldn’t be delivered to his house from Muleshoe.

The odd lifestyle and disposition made him famous across Bailey and Parmer counties.

And some people thought Old Josh Blocher was rich.

(To be continued.)

We could argue all day about who’s the greatest football player with ties to our region.

Kevin Kott, from ENMU media guide

That conversation would certainly include pros Zach Thomas, Donny Anderson, Lawrence McCutcheon, Jerry Sisemore, Mercury Morris, Hank Baskett, Michael Sinclair, Kenny King and at least a half dozen more.

But don’t forget an Eastern New Mexico University quarterback whose passing records still stand after more than a quarter of a century.

Kevin Kott, now a branch manager for an investment firm in Carmel, Calif., never made the big time because he was slow afoot — but, oh, what a golden right arm.

Kott played two seasons for the Greyhounds — 1983-84 — and still has the school record for career passing yards (6,601), career touchdown passes (58) and most touchdown passes in a game (8).

He also engineered a 32-point come-from-behind win over East Central University on Sept. 15, 1984. That record may never be broken.

Kott was drafted in 1985 by the Arizona Wranglers of the United States Football League and signed a free-agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers prior to the 1986 National Football League season. But he never played a down with either team.

“I could probably throw it with them,” he joked, in a telephone interview on Monday, “but running away from them was another story.”

Early Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service warned eastern New Mexico to prepare for heavy, blowing snow and hazardous driving conditions on Monday morning.

Instead, we received no significant moisture. The sun was out. Roads were clear.

Just another example of how unpredictable the weather can be around these parts.

Business promoters boast our average temperature is just under 60 degrees and we receive about 300 days of sunshine every year. But you don’t have to be here long to realize average is not normal.

There is no such thing as normal weather in eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.

On Feb. 1, 1967, area thermometers climbed over 80 degrees. That same date in 1951, we set a record — 17 degrees below zero.

It’s usually nippy outside from, say, Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. But on Christmas Day in 1919, our pioneer settlers saw temperatures in the 90s.

We don’t receive a lot of moisture, often going three months or more without snow or rain. But in 1911, National Weather Service records show Clovis received 22 inches of snow … in November. And in 1914, Portales was flooded with 12.67 inches of rain … in May.

Outdoor activity promoters tell us the average annual rainfall for the region is 18 inches.

History tells us you do not want to be outdoors the day it falls.

The state of New Mexico turns 100 on Friday.

President Taft makes New Mexico a state (Photo courtesy New Mexico History Museum)

Here’s some trivia:

• President William Howard Taft signed the declaration of statehood at 1:35 p.m. on Jan. 6, 1912, in his private office at the White House. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported about two dozen people witnessed the event, half of them from New Mexico Territory.

“Well, it is all over,” Taft said after signing his name on two documents. “I am glad to give you life. I hope you will be healthy.”

• New Mexico was the 47th state, beating Arizona by a month. Alaska and Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959.

• New Mexico was named by 16th century Spanish explorers who hoped to find gold and wealth equal to Mexico’s Aztec treasures, according to the website 50states.com

• Portales and Clovis were already established before New Mexico reached statehood. Portales was incorporated in 1909, and people were living in the community more than a decade before that. Clovis was created by the railroad in 1907.

• Actor/comedian Danny Thomas – star of “Make Room for Daddy” and founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital — was born the same day New Mexico became a state.

• Also in 1912 …

… The Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

… Aviator Wilbur Wright died.

… Girl Scouts of the United States of America was founded in Savannah, Ga.

So happy birthday to the Girl Scouts, too.