Tales from the Morgue

Miners shock BYU, 23-16

October 27, 1985

John Laird
El Paso Times

The University of Texas at El Paso recorded one of the most surprising upsets in college football history Saturday night at the Sun Bowl as the previously winless Miners stunned defending national champion Brigham Young University, 23-16.

Coach Bill Yung, who had won just two games in each of his first three years at UTEP and was 0-6 entering Saturday night’s game, called the victory ever the nation’s seventh-ranked team “a great miracle.”

The Miners leaped into the national spotlight with big plays, not the least of which was an interception by Danny Taylor in the second quarter. Taylor caught the ball one yard deep in his own end zone and returned it 100 yards, officially, for the touchdown that put UTEP ahead to stay, 17-10.

Also in the big play category was a 52-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Sammy Garza to Clarence Seay for UTEP’s first touchdown of the night. And Hugo Castellanos kicked a career-best 50-yard field goal in the first quarter to move the Miners into a 10-10 tie. Castellanos also kicked a 31-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter. But it was the UTEP defense that held the nation’s top-ranked passing attack to just six points in the second half.

The Western Athletic Conference victory was especially shocking in that UTEP had won only 14 of its past 121 games. Brigham Young dropped to 6-2 for the year and 3-1 in WAC play.

Brigham Young quarterback Robbie Bosco, who usually dominates with his powerful passing, threw three other interceptions and fumbled the snap that led to the Miners’ recovery and Castellanos’ second-period field goal. Bosco, who last week passed for 585 yards in BYU’s 45-23 defeat of New Mexico, ended the game with 151 yards. He connected on 15 of 35 attempts. Garza completed eight passes for 146 yards.

1997 UTEP vs BYU

Juvenile Authorities Say 50 Teen-Age Gangs Active

October 20, 1956

By BILL MONTGOMERY

The Dead End Kids and Gashouse Guys are back.

Fifty organized gangs of teenagers – some of them numbering 50 to 75 members – roam the streets of El Paso nightly now.

Their operations: beatings, stabbings, zip-gun shootings, thefts, burglaries, vandalism, auto thefts, drinking.

Their field of operations: from the crossroads to Ysleta; from 13th Street to Mountain View.

So far this year the rat packs have shot one person with a zip-gun, severely beaten several and stabbed at least eight who have had to go to the hospital for treatment.

How many have nursed their black eyes, bruises, split heads, sliced ribs and chain-flayed backs at home or under care of private doctors is not known.

Juvenile gangsters at the moment have reached the greatest numerical status in history here. There is no distinction as to neighborhoods which spawn them, no racial, religious or economic group which supplies more of their recruits than others.

BIGGEST SINCE 1951

Not since the bloody days of 1950-51 when juveniles hospitalized someone every few days for weeks at a time has El Paso permitted the young gangsters to achieve such widespread organizations.

Capt. John M. Fuller, County probation officer, Friday confirmed that a list of 50 gangs obtained by The Times were all in active operation at this time and that all were under investigation by his office and City Police juvenile officers.

Concerted effort by probation officers, police, sheriff’s deputies, church groups and above all, parents crushed the vicious rat packs here in 1950.

But now they’re back as Capt. Fuller emphatically confirmed.

They congregate at drive-in cafes, intimidating employes and customers, picking fights and committing acts of vandalism. They pick out a likely recruit and rough him up until he joins one gang or another in simple self defense.

They use knives, clubs, homemade blackjacks and zip-guns. And a weapon which has rapidly gained ascendancy in recent years, the bicycle chain.

RUGGED WEAPON

It has sharp edges and leaves a welt or gash halfway round its victim. It tears and gouges with its dirty, rusty edges and properly used leaves a dandy scar.

Mainly the tough kids (none of whose El Paso gangs are named Dead End Kids or Gashouse Guys) fight other kids about the same age, but adults are fair game for the thievery and retaliation.

At drive-in cafes near the military bases they gather by the carloads, make slighting remarks to waitresses in hopes of stirring up a battle with soldiers to whom some of the carhops are married.

Usually they succeed in getting their battle.

One boy whose father lives in a distant city and whose mother lives here was sent to live with his father after becoming a chronic juvenile offender here. The father intercepted a letter to the youth from fellow gangsters and sent it back to El Paso officers.

Maybe most of that letter was youthful (and badly-spelled) boasting. Officers and citizens can hope it wasn’t all true.

FULL SCHEDULE

His correspondent told the ex-gang member than the kids were doing OK, having “got in fights with those spics every day last week” and that the “midnight auto fund” was in good shape.

The “midnight auto fund,” the letter indicated, was made up of money obtained from sale of stolen autos, auto parts and other property. The writer assured the exile that a car recently had been sold for $2,500 and that he, the writer, would soon forward “a grand” to his deported buddy.

Keeping the midnight auto fund supplied hurt the gang once, the letter said. They were meting (presumably with their girls’ auxiliary) in a six-room house “near the mountain” which they had rented and only 23 were on hand, since the rest were out “replenishing the fund.”

Along came a gang of “30 guys from Ruidoso” who had traveled here in seven autos, and fell upon the unsuspecting local gang with the advantage of surprise.

The battle raged for 20 minutes, the “Ruidoso” gang set fire to a trellis on the house, and “four cop cars and two fire engines” came screaming to the scene.

The letter-writer calmly described one youngster with three ribs and a shoulder fractured, others with other injuries. But maybe that was just bragging, because the hospitals did not report any such cases.

Maybe.

MOUTHPIECE FUND

In another intercepted letter officers learned that one gang turned all its stolen property into a “mouthpiece fund” to hire a good lawyer if any of its members ever got arrested.

Capt. Fuller, who retired after years as an El Paso policeman before taking the probation officer’s post, has plenty of personal experience to draw on in commenting on juvenile affairs here. He told a service club recently that delinquency in the form of gangs was now at a peak in El Paso.

What makes juvenile gangsters?

“Cars,” says Capt. Fuller. “Giving a youngster a car is the worst sin a parent can commit in connection with that child.”

Police echo the sentiment.

Kids with cars have to go someplace to show them off. They don’t go alone. Kids with cars have to have money to keep them going to “dress them up,” to make them “dig out” faster than the other kids’ cars.

That makes thefts, according to Fuller and police.

The parents’ responsibility comes in not keeping track of their children; not knowing where they are when they go out night after night.

Police think most parents must not even know the contents of their children’s rooms or their own garages, or they would discover evidence of gang membership – maybe a bicycle chain with one end wrapped with tape for a grip.

Maybe a zip-gun made out of an auto radio antenna, a rubber band a block of wood. Maybe an extra hubcap or spare tire.

Or a black eye or a bloody shirt.

No high school in El Paso is without its gang and police say at the present rate of growth there are few homes in El Paso proof from them.

---

Cotton picking

September 22, 1943

More Prisoners Here To Start Cotton Picking

A group of 628 Italian war prisoners arrived Tuesday from the Lordsburg, N.M., camp and were making ready to invade El Paso County cotton fields later in the week.

The contingent detrained at Boone Avenue and moved to the Southwestern Livestock Exposition Building and Coliseum. Arrival of the major group brought total strength of the labor unit to 678. Fifty prisoner workers arrived Saturday to prepare the sub-camp, which is under command of Capt. J.O. Saffold

October 23, 1965

Mayor Matches General In Cotton Picking Contest

El Paso’s cotton picker shortage was temporarily solved Friday night when Mayor Judson F. Williams and Brig. Gen. Charles Cantrell, assistant commander of the U.S. Army Air Defense Command at Ft. Bliss, met in a cotton picking contest on the Mall in Bassett Center.

The contest, held in conjunction with the fourth annual Bassett Center 4-H Fair, ended in a draw with judges weighing in the amount of cotton picked by the two officials as equal.

Other events Friday night included games with local 4-H Clubs competing against each other, complete with a pie eating contest. Eddie Mueller of the Upper Valley 4-H Club won the pie eating contest.

A square dance exhibition followed the cotton picking contest. Mayor Williams and Gen. Cantrell we both awarded miniature cotton bales with inscribed brass plaques by the local 4-H Clubs.

Saturday’s activities will begin at 10 a.m. with various exhibits of 4-H work and a bake sale of homemade cakes, cookies and pies.

At 1:30 p.m., 4-H girls will present a style show modeling custom-made clothes. Activities will be concluded with awarding of a side of choice beef, a bale of cotton and a Shetland pony.

Two Men Hanged In County Jail In 1900, Last Time Gallows Was Used

December 17, 1950

By JOE PARRISH

Jailer T.C. Lyons walked down the jail corridor and stopped before a cell. Inside were Geronimo Parra and Antonio Flores, both convicted murderers due to hang in a few minutes.

The two men looked up sullenly, Lyons asked, “You ready, boys?”

The scene is the old county jail building, now used as El Paso police station and city jail. The date is Jan. 5, 1900. The old gallows, from which two men dropped to sudden, legal death that day, is still there and in good working order. Located in a corner of the third tier of the tank, the trap door is surrounded by a railing and to one side is a lever for springing it.

It was sprung twice that day, but only after both the condemned men stabbed three officers with smuggled daggers in a last-minute attempt to take somebody else with them. But more of that later.

One of the few privileged spectators to the hanging was Capt. John R. Hughes, the late, great Texas Ranger. And on Hughes’ lips was a smile of grim satisfaction. For one of the men, Parra, was hanging for the murder of another Ranger, Charles Fusselman. The captain had sworn to bring the killer to justice. And he kept his vow, although it took him nine years to capture his man and almost another year to see him convicted.

The story begins 10 years previously, on April 17, 1890. It is told in back issues of The Times. That morning John Barnes, a rancher living near Mundy Springs, dashed into the sheriff’s office.

TRACKED THIEVES

“A gang of thieves rounded up all my horses and a yearling calf last night,” he excitedly told Deputy Simmons. “I tracked them to a pass through the mountain about 8 miles north of the city. But at the entrance to the pass I met a mean-looking Mexican standing guard. I didn’t have my pistol with me so I came to town for help.”

Ranger Fusselman, who was also a deputy United States marshal, was in town from his Marfa Ranger camp to attend Federal court. Since the deputy sheriff was busy, he volunteered to go after the thieves. He and George Herald armed themselves and returned to the pass with Barnes to capture the gang.

The canyon for which the three men were heading is a rugged, forbidding place. It lies directly north of the tallest peek of the Franklin range. In a small side canyon Indians lived, and their metate holes for grinding corn, and their paintings, can still be found – if one knows where to look.

In the canyon is an ancient mine shaft and a cave with a smoke-blackened ceiling where the robbers might have lived. High on the canyon’s slopes water runs the year round – and tall trees grow. Before the army took it over as a target range and began blasting its walls with cannon, deer grazed on its grassy bottom and porcupines lived under the rocks.

FUSSELMAN KILLED

At 5 p.m. Herald galloped back into town, his horse covered with foam. He reported that they had surprised the thieves in the canyon, that a fight had ensued and Fusselman slain.

Fusselman had been riding along the mountain side closely followed by Herald, with Barnes slightly in the rear. As the Ranger topped a small arm of the mountain, he found himself looking down on the outlaw camp not 30 yards ahead.

Not taking time to unsling his rifle, Fusselman drew his six shooter and opened fire, shouting to his companions, “Boys, we’re in for it and let’s stay with it.”

Those were his last words. As he finished speaking, his companions saw him throw his hand to his head, reel in the saddle and fall to the ground.

Herald had no trouble in quickly recruiting volunteers and 10 men armed to the teeth and led by Deputy U.S. Marshall Bob Ross, sat out to capture the thieves. Following the trail through the canyon, they recovered 18 horses, two cows and a calf abandoned by the fleeing outlaws.

The rail led through the mountains, down across the foothills on the west side of the mountain to the bosque (swamp) in the river bottom some 10 miles north of the city.

Here the posse had to halt, as it was suicide to enter the bog. Constable Patterson rode in a few feet and his horse sand to its belly in mud.

HUGHES ENTERS CASE

The tale now switches to the Ranger camp in Marfa. Hughes, then a corporal, was put on the case by Capt. Frank Jones, according to Hughes’ biography, “Border Boss,” by Jack Martin.

Hughes rushed to El Paso and learned from Herald that the fatal bullets had been fired by Geronimo Parra, a leader of the gang and notorious border bad man. But the Ranger was unable to pick up his trail, which led into New Mexico, and after vowing to avenge his brother officer, he returned to duty in Marfa.

He never lost track of Parra. For the next nine years, whenever the opportunity came, he searched for the killer. Then he learned that his man was in the penitentiary at Santa Fe, N.M. but attempts by Texas officials to return him to Texas were unsuccessful.

One day in 1899 Hughes, now a captain and in charge of company D in Ysleta, had a distinguished visitor. The famed Pat Garrett, slayer of Billy the Kid and Sheriff of Dona Ana County, N.M., rode in to visit his old friend and to ask a favor.

Garrett wanted an outlaw named Pat Agnew, who was at large in Texas. Hughes, always a sharp trader, pounced on the opportunity.

“If you’ll get me Parra, who’s in the penitentiary at Santa Fe, I’ll get you Agnew,” he said.

It was a deal.

Hughes set off on the trail. For weeks he lived in the saddle, searching for a man he had never seen. He asked a thousand questions, picking up a meager clue here, another there. Finally he located his man working on a small ranch near the Big Bend border, took him into custody and turned him over to Garrett at El Paso.

Garrett immediately went to Santa Fe and secured the release of Parra and delivered him to the triumphant Ranger captain.

TIMES TELLS OF HANGING

The story of the hanging is told, with gory detail, in The Times for Jan. 6, 1900. All morning large numbers of Mexicans had surrounded the jail, and by 1 p.m., time for the first execution, the crowd had swelled to thousands. The housetops, fences and boxcars in the vicinity were alive with the curious, who, being unable to get inside, were content to watch through the jail windows.

Flores, who was to be executed for killing his sweetheart in Smeltertown, was first. As jailer Lyons returned to the gallows when Flores the murderer suddenly drew a crude, homemade dagger and lunged at Deputy Sheriff Ed Bryant, who had been instrumental in his conviction.

Instantly the narrow constricted tank was bedlam. Screaming Spanish curses, Flores made several vicious stabs at Bryant’s stomach. The agonized deputy went down under the surprise attack, and four other officers struggled with Flores who in his desperation fought with the strength of several men.

Then Parra, whose cell door had been left open, rushed into the corridor brandishing a similar dagger. He stabbed Policeman Cristy, then turned to Officer Ten Eyck and stabbed him.

But in a few seconds both were overpowered. Parra was disarmed and thrown back into his cell, and Flores rendered harmless with handcuffs. Each was marched in turn to the gallows, the noose affixed, the black hood put in place, and the trap door sprung from beneath their feet. All three officers recovered quickly, as their wounds were not serious.

When Parra, defiant to the last, dropped through the steel trap door and met his death at the end of a rope, a grim smile played on Hughes’ lips. Fusselman was avenged.

And the rugged fastnesses of the Franklin perpetuate his name. The canyon in which the gallant ranger met death was re-christened Fusselman Canyon.

Firecreek Premiere Stars Arrive In EP

January 24, 1968

STARS ARRIVE -- The world premiere of Warner Brothers-Seven Arts new western, "Firecreek," scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Plaza Theatre, began Tuesday night with the arrival of the stars. Shown at International Airport with James Stewart, right, who portrays the sheriff, are Ed Begley, whose role is that of a fire and brimstone precher, and the petitie Miss Barbara Luna, cast in the film as the Indian girl, Meli (Times Staff Photo)

Firecreek Premiere Stars Arrive In EP

“Hollywood really hasn’t changed much. There is still magic, still the excitement as far as I am concerned,” said James Stewart, the idol of millions and whose career as one of movieland’s leading stars has spanned three decades.

Stewart led a contingent of movie stars into El Paso Tuesday night for the premiere at 8 p.m., Wednesday at the Plaza Theater of “Firecreek” a western which has, according to director Vincent McEveety, “something to say.”

Arriving at International Airport were Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Miss Barbara Luna, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Begley, McEveety and Calvin Clements, screen writer.

They were met by executives of Warner Brothers-Seven Arts and Interstate Theatres along with three representatives of the University of Texas at El Paso Golddiggers who presented the women with bouquets of red roses.

There is a magic always for those caught up in these events for it is exciting to see and talk with persons who are very much a legend in their time, these being especially Stewart and Begley.

Part of this intangible legend is that they are the same in person as they are on the screen. For example, Stewart is soft spoken, unassuming, waiting for the question before giving the answer which he then does with an interesting mixture of confidence and friendliness.

It is also fun to talk with younger members of these troupes; Miss Luna, for example. This is her second premiere, her first being in connection with her role in “The Ship of Fools.” She has appeared in many television productions.

Looking very much straight from 5th Avenue in New York, which is her home, she was asked in this exclusive interview with The El Paso Times whether she rides a horse in the new film in which she portrays a half-breed maiden.

She turned very serious, thought for a moment, and replied, “No, I don’t think so – but I get raped!”

Stewart said he has been in El Paso many times and has been looking forward to a return visit for the premiere.

“Over the years I have been at premieres of pictures all over the country. I like this part of the business. It is the right way to start a film moving,” he said.

“Firecreek” will open its regular run in movie theaters throughout the Southwest on Thursday, according to W.E. Mitchell, head of Interstate Theatres from Dallas.

Stewart said that “Firecreek” is a different kind of Western, that it is serious with some sadness but definitely is not grim.

McEveety elaborated somewhat on the intention of the film.

“We think it is something distinctive but will, of course, wait for the opinion of the critics. I think we said something. We intended to say something, not so much about the guy but about you and me. We hope its different,” the director said.

Clements, the screen writer, said he hopes that the term. “Firecreek,” will become something significant to people because it could represent any town which is threatened with violence.

In the plot, the town of Firecreek is invaded by five tough adventurers, Henry Fonda, Gary Lockwood, James Best, Jack Elam and Morgan Woodward.

Their first encounter is with a flirtatious farm girl and then, upon arriving in the town, two of them get into a brawl over Miss Luna who is an unmarried Indian girl with a fair-haired child.

This violence is stopped by Stewart, a farmer who is inadvertently identified as a part-time sheriff, and here begins his attempt to restore law and order into which is woven various romantic interests. Begley plays the traveling fire and brimstone preacher.

The stars will meet with more than 50 press, television and radio representatives from throughout the United States and Canada Wednesday morning; attend a Mexican rodeo in the charro ring in Juarez at noon and then prepare for personal appearances at 8 p.m. at the Plaza Theatre. Headquarters for all visitors is the Camino Real in Juarez.

Festivities planned for the arrival of the stars at the Plaza include music by the University of Texas at El Paso band and the Golddiggers and dancing by Tigua and Matachin Indians.

The stars will then appear on the Plaza stage where they will be made honorary citizens by Mayor Judson Williams and honorary deputies by Sheriff Mike Sullivan prior to the first showing of “Firecreek.”

January 26, 1968 - WINNERS GREET STEWART -- El Pasoans Myra Causey and her daughter Sharan La Pine, winners of Piggly Wiggly's "Win a Luncheon Date with Jimmy Stewart," chat with the star of Warner Brothers--7 Arts "Firecreek" at pre-luncheon world premiere festivities. Left is E. W. "Dub" Curry, vice president and divisional manager of El Paso Piggly Wiggly division.

Can you identify the people in this photo?

I recently came across a stack of photos that I can't identify. I am posting one of the photos here to see if any of you know who the people in the photo are.

You can click on the photo for a larger view.

Judge Woodrow Bean: Truly a most unforgettable character

May 25, 1985

Gary Scharrer
El Paso Times -

One of the books I’ve yet to read only because it remains to be written involves the life and times of Judge Woodrow Wilson Bean Sr.

The condensed version is the stuff you might read about in Reader’s Digest under the heading: “My Most Unforgettable Character.”

The Bean story could begin just about anywhere. Is he a descendant of the legendary Judge Roy Bean? Bean has never discouraged the notion of his ancestry with the infamous West Texas saloon owner and judge who enforced the only “law west of the Pecos.” So when federal Judge R.E. Thomason swore Woodrow in as El Paso county judge in the 1950s. Thomason proclaimed: “We again have law west of the Pecos.”

Maybe the Bean story begins during those 11 formative years that he spent in a Masonic orphanage. Or maybe it starts in the late 1930s when he donned scarf and goggles and set out to be the Air Force’s next Red Baron. However, after crash-landing two government planes, Bean looked for a more stable calling in life. So he plunged into politics and succumbed to what has become a 45-year-long obsession not unlike a junkie’s addiction to heroin, Bean said.

It started in 1940 when the 22-year-old adventurer hitchhiked back and forth between El Paso and Austin during the first of his three terms in the state legislature.

Bean’s roller-coaster ride through life includes three terms as state representative; a 250-vote defeat in 1947 for U.S. representative; an active term of accomplishments as county judge; neglect to pay federal income taxes in the 1950s that caused him another narrow defeat during a 1962 congressional race; suspension of his law license for two years following his tax problems; rebounding to fame after successfully defending Johnny Cash against charges of carrying an illegal weapon and drugs; getting elected to the state school board; campaigning in an engineer’s cap and bib overalls as “the people’s candidate” for the state Railroad Commission; and then returning six years later in a pinstriped suit during his campaign for the state Supreme Court.

“The Judge” has run so often that buddy Malcolm McGregor once quipped: “He has run for office every two years since 1940 except when under indictment or on probation.”

The Bean stories are too many to chronicle… and he doesn’t even have to be around for new tales to be told. Just last week, state Sen. Carl Parker of Port Arthur shared one of his Bean stories during a lull in a Senate filibuster.

Bean’s charm and cunning character combined to give him a statewide reputation in Democratic politics. Lyndon Johnson was a friend; John Kennedy was an acquaintance. During a 1960 campaign swing through El Paso, Kennedy still remembered and laughed about Bean’s resourcefulness. Four years earlier, Bean used more than 100 county jail trusties to greet Kennedy and help sell the airport crowd.

One factor probably denying the Judge from greatness has been his less than robust health. He’s been a frequent patron of hospitals, sometimes being forced to withdraw from races because of health problems. He often denied rumors about heart and liver problems that he blamed opponents for spreading.

However, no El Pasoan has conducted more hospital room news conferences than Woodrow Bean.

In 1955, the 36-year-old Bean suffered a heart attack. Many years later the Judge would lament: “Had I only known I was gonna live this long I would’ve taken better care of myself.”

Today the 67-year-old legend is battling lung cancer, yet yearning for “one last hurrah.”

And he’s still the witty and audacious Woody, whom Republicans even sometimes admire.

A couple weeks ago, after poking at his hospital meal for an hour. Bean grabbed one of his cigarettes. A nurse asked: “Are you smoking while you eat?”

“No, not while eating. I’ll give the doctor that much,” Bean replied, before offering a pledge to quit “tomorrow.”

Among Bean’s valuable assets has been his visionary look at life. Here’s a guy who, already in the 1940s, warned about El Paso’s future water problems. He wanted the city and state to start searching for solutions. He also advocated a federal housing program for the poor long before the Department of Housing and Urban Development was formed.

Or how about the time Bean offered “free baby-sitting service” during his 1950 campaign for county judge? Doesn’t that make him a pioneer in child day care?

As county judge in the late 1950s, Bean’s political maneuvering enabled El Paso to get the Bridge of the Americas, the county hospital, the Sun Bowl and approval for Trans Mountain Road. Politicians need to open their heads, dream and pursue ideas, he said.

“Any damn fool,” could’ve reasoned a need for the bridge, Bean said. “We have people over there; we have people over here. They have to get back and forth. How do you do it? Hell, you built a bridge!”

Right now, Bean is fighting for his life. But the political part of him is so powerful that he can’t concede that he might have run his last political race.

“Thinking about politics is what keeps my spirits up,” he said recently in his hospital room, while giving tips and advice about the county commission’s squabble over the site for a rodeo/sports complex.

“The fight over that makes me happy. It gives me something to think about. I forget I had cancer,” he said.

After earning a weekend release from the hospital, Bean frail and hoarse, quickly returned to circulation. By Monday morning he was seen with a political buddy in a Downtown café. Pontificating on politics, of course.

That’s why Woody qualifies for “My Most Unforgettable Character.”

The Judge has been a cornerstone in El Paso politics for almost a half century. El Paso politics always will be something less once that pillar is removed.

Legendary Woody Bean battles new foe: cancer

Woodrow Bean stories abound

From state House to a spot 'in the shade'

Woodrow Bean Photo Gallery

EP's Oldest Mother, At 97, Has Adjusted With Times

01/17/1971 - BIRTHDAY COIFFURE - Mrs. Beatrice Stephenson, 162 Riverside, has her hair done in anticipation of her 101st birthday Sunday. Mrs. Zelma Stephen, standing behind Mrs. Stephenson, has done her hair for the past seven years. Mrs. Stephenson was El Paso's oldest Mother of the Year at the age of 97.

May 14, 1967

Sammie Ann Wicks
El Paso Times -

El Paso’s Oldest Mother doesn’t mind letting her ankles show.

There were days, though, said Mrs. Beatrice Stephenson, 97, of 162 Riverside, when a woman’s feet had to be covered, even when she was riding a horse. She recalled the concealing attire she wore in her native Oak Valley, Kan., with long, black skirts “that nearly swept the ground.”

Mrs. Stephenson has adjusted to the times she lives in and now consents to wear her skirts much shorter – two or three inches below the knee, which is short enough, she thinks, for a lady.

And a lady she is, with a wealth of living behind her, and a hundred clever tales about the old days.

She was born Beatrice Dexter Jan. 17, 1870, the daughter of homesteaders in Elk County, Kansas, and is today one of two members of her family that remain. Her nephew, Ed Dexter, 90, resides in Wichita, Kan.

NO DOCTORS – Still in excellent health, Mrs. Stephenson lays her vital old age partly to the fact she has never seen a doctor. When a fall she had, rushing out to gather in the clothes, three years ago put her in bed, her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Irwin, summoned a physician and long-time friend of Mrs. Stephenson.

The doctor replied, “Why, she wouldn’t even let me in the door.” Shortly thereafter she got up and went about her normal routine, which then consisted of cooking, sewing, reading and gardening. She still makes the beds and the morning coffee and is an avid reader of magazines, books and her much-used Bible.

She married P.E. Stephenson in 1902, a Santa Fe railroad agent who died in 1914, leaving her to rear her two children alone, a job she seems to have done thoroughly, which included giving them an education.

She was a school teacher for many years, having completed high school and attended a teacher’s college in southwestern Oklahoma.

She also made all her children’s clothes, using an old treadle-powered Singer.

“When I first used one of these new electrics, I’d sit down and start to treadle and then remember it had its own power,” she said.

Mrs. Stephenson recalls when the first automobiles came out and evidently decided to stick to the horse and buggy and let other people do the driving.

She told of trying to maneuver a new Model A down the road and ending up over an “embankment.” She didn’t give up, though, and tried again, hitting a fire hydrant. She never drove again.

Mrs. Stephenson had lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Utah and Texas. When asked what she thought of Texas, after commenting that it was pretty hot and dry, the charming Kansan replied it was fine climate to live in (El Paso’s) because “there aren’t as many cyclones as there are in other parts of the country.”

With 97 years of experience, she has made quite a reputation as a cook and before the thin-sliced butter-crunch days of the modern bakery used to put out better than six loaves of home-made bread several times a week, that “melted in your mouth,” according to her daughter.

CAKES FAMOUS – She was commissioned often to make wedding cakes for local parties when she lived in Oklahoma, where she is probably still famous for her angel food cake, “that didn’t come out of a box.”

She is a vital link with a past far-removed from this space-age, and remembered stories her mother told of dealing and trading with the Indians to survive in the rugged prairie land.

Her father served as captain in the Union Army during the Civil War and she recalled enthusiastically “when he got his mustering-out papers.”

Mrs. Stephenson has only recently restricted her activities and doesn’t attend the Methodist Church as she used to do. She goes to the beauty shop faithfully three to four times a month to keep her snowy hair waved and in place.

Coming from a family of eight, she is quietly proud of her four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her two grandsons, Richard and Kirk Irwin, live in El Paso with their families and teach in area schools.

Mrs. Stephenson follows winners of the Oldest Mother of El Paso contest sponsored by the El Paso Times, including Mrs. Beatrice Ortiz of 7549 Parral, who won in 1966, and Mrs. Dorothy (Aunt Dolly) Porter, who won in 1965.

Two other 97-year-old El Paso mothers were nominated. Mrs. Margarita Carbajal of 154 Irma was born Feb. 22, 1870 and Mrs. Dominga Robali of 713 S. Oregon was born May 12, 1870.

Those nominated, 90 or above, included: Mrs. R. J. Ward, 3729 Savannah; Mrs. Elizabeth Kessel, 4312 Bliss; Mrs. Myrtle Ivey, 4414 Oxford; Mrs. Lucy McCamant, 2501 N. Piedras; Mrs. Gertrude L. Johnson, 323 N. Oregon; Mrs. Lenora Brooks, 6329 Wieland; Mrs. Nora Mills, 3710 Morehead; Mrs. Minnie A. Ruder, 2729 Porter; Mrs. C. H. Appleton, 1730 Wyoming; Mrs. Belle Spivey, 901 Ash; Mrs. Beulah Miller, 1221 E. San Antonio; Mrs. Willella Andrews, 1221 Honeysuckle; Mrs. Minnie Lee Cox, 8320 Capitan; Mrs. Delfina Carrasco, 139 Courchesne; Mrs. Effie McNutt, 6424 Byron; Mrs. Nirvia A. Curtis, 2224 Montana; Mrs. R. J. Furst, 5365 Charl Ann; Mrs. Nellie Akard, 2014 N. Stanton; Mrs. Bertha M. Keehn, 5104 Raymond Telles; Mrs. J. W. Lane, 115 Frontier; Mrs. Bessie Schaer, 1221 E. San Antonio; Mrs. Louella May Lane, 3400 Volcano; Mrs. Edward H. Loiselle, 9817 Daphne; Mrs. Maud Black, 7860 Juliet; Mrs. Mary E. Combs, 4429 Emory; Mrs. Nellie Mudgett, 2729 Porter; Mrs. Carrie L. Snyder, 1408 Oakdale.

Nominees, 80 or above, included: Mrs. Maria Rodriguez, 8248 Strickland; Mrs. Narcisa Mahle, 432 Dolan; Mrs. A. Z. Caracena, 3226 Frutas; Mrs. Maria Vasquez, 508 S. Kansas; Mrs. Maud T. Bentley, 5252 Doniphan; Mrs. George Drake, 405 Riverside; Mrs. Edith Henderson, 834 Mission; Mrs. Ignacio G. Valles, 3600 Pera; Mrs. Annie Thompson, 3613 Mountain; Mrs. Catherine Elliott, 1221 E. San Antonio; Mrs. Jesusita B. Hernandez, Rt. 1, Box 316, Ysleta; Mrs. Minnie B. Duvall, 2700 Gold; Mrs. Bertha Ivey, 8112 Catalpa; Mrs. Julia May, 459 S. Mary’s; Mrs. Francisca Flores, 1115 N. Laurel; Mrs. Mabel Taylor, 9605 Album; Mrs. Encarnacion B. Vera, 432 Charles; Mrs. Margarita Provencio, 8757 Lowds; Mrs. Mabel M. Hand, 352 Ben Swain; Mrs. Pauline S. Medina, 324 Encino; Mrs. Dolores G. Ochoa, 6262 Arapahoe; Mrs. Severa A. Sierra, 336 Carolina; Mrs. Federicia O. Telles, P.O. Box 156, Clint; Mrs. A. E. Elliott, 1100 N. Ochoa; Mrs. Myrtle Ledlow, 4120 Altura; Mrs. Antonio Bernal, 4401 E. Yandell; Mrs. L. L. Thurston, 3425 Nation; Mrs. Mary Kennedy, 2801 Pershing; Mrs. Petra M. Larson, 8729 Old Country; Mrs. Myrtle P. Jones, 208 Ramona; Mrs. Martha Jane Shoemaker, 9001 Mt. Caramel; Mrs. Lena Stout, 9621 Daugherty; Mrs. Francisca C. Gomez, 3712 Hamilton; Mrs. W. R. Ferguson, 2720 San Diego; Mrs. W. L. Cass, 5780 Will Ruth; Mrs. Juliana Rivera Enriquez, 3408 E. Gateway; Mrs. Minnie L. Harper, 5577 Hunt; Mrs. Jennie Baron, 5305 La Taste; Mrs. Samantha Lee Jackson, 1933 Harper; Mrs. Ellen Mary Millheim, 1009 Gloria.

Those nominated, 70 or above, included: Mrs. M. de Jesus Valdes, 2908 Sacramento; Mrs. Beatrice w. Palacios, 351 Val Verde; Mrs. Elsa Durant, P.O. Box 6318; Mrs. Maria

A. Chavez, 2424 Lebanon; Mrs. Helen Madden, 316 E. Rio Grande; Mrs. Juana G. Escobar, 5914 Tampa; Mrs. Florence May Shafer, 7078 Alameda; Mrs. Mary Folk, 1221 E. San Antonio; Mrs. Maria Taylor Olivas, 1401 E. Third; Mrs. Lillian L. Crowson, 1701 N. Mesa; Mrs. Maria Refugia Gutierrez, 1417 E. Missouri; Mrs. Carmen Luevano, 1509 N. Florence; Mrs. P.L. Grattan, 200 Davis; Mrs. Sarah F. Moore, 3708 Hamilton, and Mrs. Nellie Guyton, 2124 E. Yandell.

All others: Mrs. G. W. Frank, Box 302, Clint; Mrs. Minnie Hall, 5840 Swallow; Mrs. Antonio C. Sanchez, 1419 N. Kansas; Mrs. Guadalupe B. Guzman, 2004 Detroit; Mrs. K.H. McAlpine, 8509 Mt. Scott; Mrs. Anita G. Muston, 9800 Blue Wing; Mrs. Margie Blair, Box 1, Newman; Mrs. Akiko M. Cotton, 9326-B Wolf, and Mrs. Guadalupe Ramirez, 2414 Lebanon.

The great 1972 Olympic holdup

Jim Forbes is now head basketball coach at Andress High School.

July 20, 1992

Don Henry
El Paso Times -

Forbes, Haskins still feel U.S. basketball team was robbed

The sting is gone – two decades took care of that. However, the memory lingers.

“You’ve still got the memories, of what could have been, what should have been, what might have been.”

When Jim Forbes returned to El Paso and UTEP from Munich, Germany, 20 years ago, he felt the sting, the bitter sting of a defeat an entire nation couldn’t accept. On the Olympic basketball court in Munich in 1972, the United States team, including Forbes, won the gold-medal game over the Soviet Union, 50-49. But, in a conference room, by a 3-2 vote of a panel of Olympic officials, the Soviets were declared the winners, 51-50.

A string of 63 consecutive Olympic victories and seven Olympic championships came to an end. The U.S. team members boycotted the medal ceremony. Today Forbes and his teammates refuse to accept the silver medals for second place. Those remain locked in a Munich vault.

Twenty years have passed since the ’72 Games and Forbes is still asked about that game. UTEP coach Don Haskins was an assistant coach on that team too. While Forbes openly talks of his memories, Haskins doesn’t: “I’m sick and tired of talking about the 1972 Olympics.”

Haskins and Forbes agree, though, that victory was stolen from them.

“They (the Soviets) were the better team, they should have won,” Haskins said. “They averaged 28 years of age, it was their third Olympics to play together. It was the best Russian Olympic team ever.

“And we didn’t even have our best team there, although we played as well as we could play Bill Walton (the 6-foot-10 All American center from UCLA) didn’t play. And the best re-bounder in the country wouldn’t stand for the National Anthem, so we didn’t take him.

“Even at that, we had a chance Mr. Iba (Henry Iba, the U.S. coach) called it. He said they (the Soviets) would give it to us in the end. They’d choke.

“And they did.”

Forbes was one of the youngest members of the team, turning 20 just weeks before going to Munich. The 6-7 forward from UTEP started several games in the Olympics, then played most of the championship game.

“That was not one of our better games – there weren’t many highlights,” Forbes said. “We played much better against Cuba and also against Italy in the semifinals.

“It was a slow, physical game. Dwight Jones got kicked out and Jim Brewer got knocked out.”

The losses of the two centers forced the U.S. into a different game, but late in the game and trailing, the quicker Americans went into a press. The Soviets felt the pressure and the U.S. capitalized on turnovers.

Iba inserted Doug Collins at guard, and his steal in the final seconds started the frenzied and controversial – finish.

“They tackled Collins (on a breakaway after the steal.),” Haskins said, “knocked him out.”

When Collins regained consciousness, he dropped in both free shots for a 50-49 U.S. lead with three seconds remaining.

Those three seconds remain the most bitter in U.S. basketball history. Twice given new life, the Soviets scored, center Aleksandr Belov taking a court-length pass, knocking Forbes to the floor, muscling past Kevin Joyce and scoring.

Final disputed score: USSR 51, U.S.A. 50.

“We won the game,” Haskins said recently. “The scorebook never was signed (by the referees) to make it official. There was nothing wrong with the refs, it (the injustice) was at the scorer’s table.”

Forbes remembers all the commotion at the scorer’s table: “I was there. Coach Haskins and Coach Iba were there. There was a lot of yelling and screaming. Obviously, there was a language barrier. We lost the game by a 3-2 vote (of Olympic officials),”

Haskins: “We won the game and then lost it (via discussions among Olympic officials). When Mr. Iba and I left the arena that night – about 2 or 3 in the morning – we had won. They voted about 5 o’clock that morning, and when we woke up, we had lost it.”

Lost – for the first time in Olympic history.

Forbes remembers the team in the lockerroom immediately after the game, discussing refusing the silver medals.

“I do remember us watching the awards ceremony on television the next day,” he chuckled. “We weren’t there (when the medals were handed out).”

Just days after the game, Forbes was back in El Paso catching up on classwork that began while he was in Munich. A severe knee injury three weeks later would only add to his miseries. The injury and resulting surgery hampered his final two seasons at UTEP and his two attempts at pro basketball with the Chicago Bulls.

“Remorse?  No. I was glad I was there,” Forbes said. “Obviously, I wished the ending had been different … I would go again.”

ABC to air interview with Riverside basketball coach

Bob Beamon - Olympic Gold Medalist

April 15, 1995

Three greats enter Track Hall

Derry Eads
El Paso Times
Assistant Sports Editor

Bob Beamon might still own the world long jump record had it not been for one crucial mistake on Oct. 18, 1968, in Mexico City.

Instead of landing on his feet in the pit 26 years ago, the former UTEP athlete fell backwards on his buttocks.

Officials took 30 minutes to measure the distance from the board on the runway to where his buttocks blasted out the sand. The Olympic Games’ gold-medal winning jump of 29-2 ½ would survive as the world record until Aug. 30, 1991, when Mike Powell leaped two inches further.

“I lost four percent of the jump because of my mistake,” Beamon said Friday at a press conference at UTEP’s Alumni Hall.

Beamon, 1984 Olympic women’s high hurdles bronze medalist Kim Turner-McKenzie and two-time NCAA champion Fred DeBernardi were inducted into the UTEP Track Hall of Fame at a banquet Friday night at the Cliff Inn.

Beamon was UTEP’s first NCAA individual champion, winning the long jump and triple jump at the 1968 indoor championships in Detroit. Two months later, the sophomore and several teammates were dismissed from the UTEP team for refusing to compete against Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

The 49-year-old athlete remembered only the good times Friday.

Like the time he was close to a dream of playing basketball for UTEP. Beamon and UTEP coach Don Haskins had discussed the possibility. Haskins had let athletes from other sports – Fred Carr (football), Charlie West (baseball and football) – play basketball.

“We had a deal that I would probably play for UTEP,” Beamon said.

How good was Beamon in basketball? UTEP sports information director Eddie Mullens still remembers the time when Beamon nearly had both elbows above the rim on one jump.

Beamon, who now works in Miami’s parks and recreation department, has one piece of advice for young athletes:

“Stay focused,” he said. “It only takes one-tenth of a second to lose it all. That was my problem the year before the 1968 Olympics. I’d lose my concentration for a tenth of a second.”

Turner, a seven-time All American and 1984 NCAA hurdles champion, credited former UTEP assistant coach Dan Pfaff with her success.

Pfaff, current assistant at LSU, kept McKenzie loose throughout the major championship meets.

“He told me to relax,” McKenzie said.