Died From Heart Failure
Mrs. Jeremiah Hochdrasdel, of Nogal, while out driving with a friend,
fell out of the buggy and died almost the same moment. Heart failure was
the cause of death.
Source: Albuquerque Citizen, June 7, 1899 -
Transcribed by C. Anthony
Vencesado
Martinez
MARTINEZ--Vencesado Martinez, aged 7 son of
Mr. and Mrs. Carpio Martinez, died yesterday morning at their residence,
424 West Santa Fe avenue. Mr. Martinez is employed at the fire department.
The body was taken to Crollott's funeral parlors pending funeral
arrangements.
Source: Albuquerque Journal,
July 9, 1922 -Transcribed by C. Anthony.
MAN WHO SAVED
SMOKEY BEAR DIES
Homer C.
Pickens -- former head of the state Game and Fish Department, a
lifelong conservationist and the man who nursed a fire-singed cub named
Smokey Bear back to health -- died Sunday after a brief illness. He was
91.
Born July 5, 1903, in Hopkins
County, Texas, Pickens came to New Mexico in 1927. He told reporters in
later years that he arrived by train in Albuquerque with $5 in his pocket,
looking for his half brother, Albert, whom he hadn't seen in 10 years.
He soon found his brother,
who was working for the U.S. Geological Survey (forerunner of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service), and the two worked together trapping wolves
near Tapacitos for $30 a month.
After four years of working
for the federal agency, Pickens moved over to the state Game and Fish
Department in predatory animal control in 1931.
He worked as a district game
warden in Silver City, Las Vegas, N.M., and Albuquerque.
In 1940, he was named
assistant director of Game and Fish -- and was holding that position 10
years later when he adopted a 4-pound bear cub, found during a forest fire
in the Lincoln National Forest near Capitan.
The cub -- first named "Hot
Foot Teddy" -- became the U.S. Forest Service's real-life mascot, Smokey
Bear, replacing the cartoon fire-prevention symbol that had been around
since 1944.
Pickens, who'd nursed the cub
back to health in his back yard in Tesuque, flew with Smokey to
Washington, D.C., and, amid great public fanfare, turned the bear over to
the National Zoo (where Smokey lived until his death in 1976).
In 1953, Pickens was named
state Game and Fish director -- a position he held until his retirement in
1958.
During his tenure, he was
responsible for mass transplanting of antelope, importing mountain sheep
into the Sandias and wildlife exchanges (including wild turkey for sage
grouse and antelope for elk) with other states.
As director, he also
pioneered the department's public-relations program and helped establish
Clayton Lake and Fenton Lake.
A wildlife management program
he established in the mid-'50s -- the scientific management of deer herds
in the Guadalupe Mountains -- is still in use today.
And he worked with Dean Bill
O'Donnell of what was then called New Mexico A&M (now New Mexico State
University) in setting up the school's first wildlife training program.
After his state service, he
became a conservation specialist with the then-Atomic Energy Commission in
Los Alamos. And during his many years as a conservationist, he gave expert
testimony in lawsuits on behalf of the Vermejo Park Ranch and the Baca
Land and Cattle Co. in Valle Grande.
While with the department, he
belonged to and received numerous awards from the Western Association of
State Game and Fish Commissioners and the International Association of
Game and Fish Commissioners.
He won the Nash Conservation
Award and Program's certificate of merit in 1953, and was given the
Agricultural Achievement Award of the Los Alamos Kiwanis Club in 1966.
Pickens was also the author
of two books, "Tracks Across New Mexico" and "Modern Techniques of
Trapping Coyotes and Bobcats."
He was a 32nd Degree Mason, a
life member of the Scottish Rite and a member of the Ballut Abyad Shrine
of Albuquerque. He was a member of Toastmasters and the Kiwanis Club of
Los Alamos, as well as an honorary member of the Western Association of
Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
He was preceded in death in
1985 by his wife, Edna Burton Pickens.
Survivors include three sons,
retired Army Col. Homer C. Pickens Jr. of Augusta, Ga., Jack E. Pickens of
Charlotte, N.C., and retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jimmy B. Pickens of
Abilene, Texas; a daughter, Betty Ann Pickens Cabber of Albuquerque; a
sister, Reba Airington of Sherman, Texas; eight grandchildren; and seven
great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 10 a.m.
Thursday in Palm Chapel, Strong-Thorne Mortuary, 1100 Coal SE. Burial will
follow in Fairview Memorial Park.
Memorial contributions may be
made to the Homer C. Pickens Memorial Foundation at NMSU, Rio Grande
Historical Collections, P.O. Box 30006, Las Cruces, N.M.
88003.
Source: Albuquerque Journal, February 21, 1995
-Transcribed by C. Anthony.
Albert Lucero Sanches
SANCHES--Albert Lucero, aged ?7, died last night at his residence on
North Fourth street. Mr. Sanches is survived by two sons, Pedro Sanches
and Pablo Sanches. Funeral arrangements have not been completed. Crollott
is in charge.
Source: Albuquerque Journal,
July 9, 1922 -Transcribed by C. Anthony.
