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Welcome to Desert Journal Online, established in May 2001 in New Mexico. Our website offers our true crime book, Satan's Den Exposed - The David Parker Ray Story, and poetry and photo collections, Bombshell Liberation and Interference, and provides free access to our featured videos, columns, photos and news archives.

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Headline News From Our
March 21, 2003 Issue

T or C’s first child porn
possession case unfolds

  Agent Norman Rhoades of the New Mexico State Police Criminal Investigation Section has cracked Sierra County’s first child pornography possession case.

Blackhawk offers $2.1M
for Sierra Vista Hospital

  Blackhawk Healthcare President and CEO Matt Hainline said he is about 85 percent sure that the sale of Sierra Vista Hospital to his Austin, TX based company will be a done deal...

War against Iraq begins

Support The Troops Committee forms. Click on photo for details.

  Congressman Steve Pearce, R-2^nd Congressional District of New Mexico, said he supports U.S. troops and President Bush after Wednesday night’s military action in Iraq.

BLM seeks public comments
about off-highway vehicle use

  The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has scheduled a series of meetings to begin next week to discuss Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) use on publicly managed land.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

...Support our troops but
down with the 'Bushman'

OBITUARIES

   Death notices for Jack L. Fairless, Gayland James Ross & Julia Helena Carpenter Green Cowen

…Gadzooks! Gazanias – It’s springtime!

Spring finally has arrived in Truth or Consequences as this Gazania proclaims with its outstretched petals kissing the warm southern New Mexico sun. Today marks the official start of spring. Click on photo to see what else is blooming.
DJ photo by Jennifer Wark

T or C’s first child porn

possession case unfolds

A few books and other

explicit materials involving

mostly young boys gets

gay man into trouble

By Bill Johnson

of the Desert Journal

Agent Norman Rhoades of the New Mexico State Police Criminal Investigation Section has cracked Sierra County’s first child pornography possession case.

Rhoades leveled a criminal complaint against a professed homosexual whose “closet” in Truth or Consequences got exposed in court Thursday.

The storage unit that the gay man rented in Truth or Consequences allegedly contained several books depicting sexual acts between men and boys and other unlawful materials that portray the sexual exploitation of children.

Anthony Rodriquez, 36, of Las Cruces and a former resident of Truth or Consequences, now faces a fourth degree felony charge of sexual exploitation of children.

Agent Rhoades filed the charge against Rodriguez in magistrate court on March 20. According to the criminal complaint, Rodriquez “willfully, deliberately possessed material that contained sexual exploitation of children, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-6A-3.”

The charge pails in comparison to the events that led up to Agent Rhoades’ arrest of Rodriquez on Monday, including allegations that Rodriquez’s deceased homosexual lover James Bryant had maintained books and videotapes containing child pornography and snuff-films inside his residence and that Bryant delved in sexual fantasies involving babies, playing the role with his lover Rodriquez.

Magistrate Thomas Pestak set bond for Rodriquez at $50,000 cash surety during the defendant’s first appearance in court Thursday.

For Rhoades, the case goes all of the way back to April 19, 1999, about a month after the infamous Elephant Butte trail of sexual torture case involving David Parker Ray broke.

Rhoades, an agent of the CIS for 22 years, said he was assigned to the case involving sexual torture, abduction and rape that involved several victims. He said during the course of the David Ray investigation, an activist against child exploitation, D.J. Welch, told him that James Bryant, a resident of Truth or Consequences at the time, was an active member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

Welch also told the agent that Bryant was involved with abduction and sexual penetration and contact of children. Welch further informed Rhoades that two homosexual males reported Bryant maintained the child porno and snuff films inside his East Riverside Drive residence on the east, or rural, side of the Rio Grande by what is also known as the second footbridge.

“This information was related to the Truth or Consequences City Police Department,” Agent Rhoades said in the statement of facts in support of the criminal complaint.

Not long after the unrelated David Ray case came to light, Bryant moved to San Miguel, Mexico, near Mexico City.

It wouldn’t be until nearly four years later when another egg would crack revealing lots more about Bryant’s character. Rhoades said T or C resident James Pendle told him on March 3 this year that Bryant had committed suicide while living in Las Cruces at 1421 Wyoming St.

Las Cruces police detective Greg Garcia told Rhoades that Bryant shot and killed himself inside his home on Feb. 2, now about six weeks ago. The death occurred while Bryant was living with Anthony Rodriquez.

The next day after the Pendle interview, or March 4, Agent Rhoades and Det. Garcia paid a visit to Rodriquez at his home where Rodriquez told them that Bryant indeed had been a member of the NAMBLA organization and that Bryant had tried to recruit him as a member.

Rodriquez said he knew Bryant for about five years and lived with him for a short time in T or C. Rhoades also learned that Bryant had returned from Mexico and relocated to Las Cruces about a year before his death.

“[I] learned from Anthony Rodriquez that he and James Bryant were homosexual partners and enjoyed sexual encounters using leather and chain devices but he (Rodriquez) soon learned that Bryant’s sexual preference [was] with young boys and infants,” Rhoades said in the statement of facts.

Rodriquez told Rhoades that he and Bryant many times role-played fantasies where they would pretend to engage in sexual intercourse with young boys and male infants, although Rodriquez said he neither engaged in nor actually observed such acts between Bryant and children, according to the agent’s statement.

During their sexual encounters, the role playing involved Rodriquez acting the part of the infant or young boy and they both would engage in sexual penetration of a teddy bear while fantasizing it was an infant, according to the agent’s statement.

Rodriquez said he and Bryant both had discussed purchasing a toy doll to replace the teddy bear, according to Rhoades’ statement.

But that’s not all, Rodriquez told the agent that he and Bryant would drive to Burn Lake in Las Cruces and while seated in their vehicle they would masturbate while watching children at play. Also while in other public places, Bryant would ask Rodriquez whether he noticed a certain young boy.

“[I] learned from Rodriquez that he and Bryant planned to adopt a young boy and had no concerns for the child’s safety from abuse from Bryant,” Agent Rhoades said in his statement of facts.

Rodriquez said he and Bryant approached Rodriquez’s sister with a request that she become pregnant from a donor, which would be her brother Rodriquez, and after the child of incest was born, to relinquish the child to the custody of Rodriquez and Bryant.

Rhoades said Rodriquez also reported that he and Bryant traveled to Juarez, Mexico, where Bryant would give a young boy a dollar bill to see if the boy would follow them. Bryant spoke of renting a motel room to engage in sexual acts with the young boy, Rodriquez told Rhoades.

Bryant also spoke of purchasing a farm in Mexico where they could keep young boys for sexual acts after abducting them, Rodriquez said during his interview with Rhoades earlier this month.

Rodriquez said he was still conditioned from his sexual relationship with Bryant and that he still had tendencies toward fantasizing sexual encounters with children “and alluded to what he referred to as his favorite book titled Fathers, which depicts several photographic images of nude men holding nude infants and young children,” according to the agent’s statement.

Rhoades also learned from Rodriquez that his former pastor, Reverend Felix Gonzalez, destroyed all of the child pornography that Bryant had possessed the day after Bryant died and that none was left in the home.

However, Rodriquez disclosed that Bryant was renting a storage unit at National Self Storage facility in Truth or Consequences but that he didn’t know what was inside of it.

Rodriquez eventually told the agent that he did have some items inside his home that belonged to Bryant that “may contain child pornography and subsequently relinquished those items to the two lawmen, Rhoades and Garcia.

The items allegedly belonging to Bryant included: photographic images of nude young boys; printed stories and books containing stories of incidents of sexual acts with young boys; documentation relating to Diaper Pail Friends, an organization where adults role play being an infant to include wearing diapers and acting like an infant; several books and documentation relating to the NAMBLA organization that condones sexual interaction between adults and children; a catalog of items related to Diaper Pail Friends; correspondence from Diaper Pail Friends which indicated that Bryant had joined the organization, and a CD-R disc that Rodriquez said contained stories of sexual acts involving children, according to Rhoades’ statement.

On March 5, National Self Storage employee Karen Donaldson told Agent Rhoades and Det. Garcia during their visit to the T or C storage unit facility that not only Bryant, but Rodriquez too, currently rent separate storage units there.

On March 10, Rhoades executed a district court approved search warrant for storage units 333, belonging to Rodriquez, and 354, which was Bryant’s.

Several publications depicting child pornography were seized from Bryant’s unit 354.

During the search on Rodriquez’s storage unit 333, the agent found and seized the following books:

Handjobs, Barbarian Chronicles I - the Legacy of Slava that contained about 100 sexually implicit illustrations of adult males engaged in sexual acts with male adolescents;

Mom, Dad, and Bobby that illustrated on the cover an adult female and male and adolescent male in a sexual pose. The book graphically described incestuous sexual acts between a mother, father and their adolescent son named Bobby.

Slave Boys in Bondage depicting graphically described stories of sexual acts between adult males and adolescent males;

Sister Showed Him How depicting explicit stories of adult males engaged in sexual acts with females ages seven to 11 and of an act of bestiality between a seven-year-old girl and a German shepherd dog; and

Handjobs, Daddy Boy Stories depicting about 13 sexually explicit illustrations of adult males engaged in sexual acts with boys, including one account of a father and juvenile son.

The agent also seized from Rodriquez storage unit in T or C amateur type written stories including stories of a brother and sister touching each others genitalia, an act of bestiality between an adolescent male and Labrador dog, sex acts between two brothers, ages 12 and 14; sex acts between two adolescent brothers and their father, and lastly of incestuous sexual acts between mothers, fathers and adolescent sons, according to Rhoades’ statement of facts.

The setting of a preliminary examination in state magistrate court, which will determine whether there is probable cause to bind over the defendant to district court for trial on the felony charge, was pending as of press time Thursday.

FOR FOLLOW UP STORY, CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LINKS TO RELATED STORIES

<<<   >>>

This Yellow Rose of Texas is about to spring forth a full bloom with the dawn of the spring season upon Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
DJ photo by Jennifer Wark

Blackhawk offers $2.1M

for Sierra Vista Hospital

And will give it back

to the community after

building a new hospital

By Fred Mramor

of the Desert Journal

Blackhawk Healthcare President and CEO Matt Hainline said he is about 85 percent sure that the sale of Sierra Vista Hospital to his Austin, TX based company will be a done deal after he met with the Joint Powers Commission in their executive session Tuesday evening.

JPC members seemed very receptive to Blackhawk’s offer to buy SVH and build a new hospital in Truth or Consequences within five years, Hainline said.

Hainline and David Bryant, president and CEO of Kendra Health Services - a rural hospital management company, also of Austin, TX - presented themselves to the public and press and answered numerous questions in a forum following the JPC meeting and in a press conference Wednesday morning.

Blackhawk’s process of acquiring rural, Critical Access hospitals began two years ago, Hainline said. He and Bryant have been seeking opportunities in small but growing communities with old hospitals that are beyond their useful lives, Hainline said.

As Hainline sees it, Blackhawk will acquire a hospital in Sierra County for $14.1 million - $2.1 million of which will be the purchase price for SVH. Blackhawk will donate the old hospital to the community after building a new hospital for $12 million.

Hainline said Blackhawk will have no use for the old hospital after building its new facility. SVH Governing Board member Gary Whitehead said he estimated that the empty building and land would be worth $500,000.

The JPC is considering using the old hospital as a mental health care facility; SVH Administrator Domenica Rush added that it could be used to provide rehabilitation services.

The JPC, comprised of elected officials from Sierra County, the City of Truth or Consequences and the Village of Williamsburg, purchased SVH from Adventist Health System/Sunbelt for $1.5 million in 1997.

The JPC borrowed $2 million from the New Mexico Finance Authority - $1.5 million to meet the purchase price and $500,000 to finance hospital operations. The balance of the JPC’s mortgage is now about $1.5 million.

SVH Governing Board Chairman Ted Pape said $600,000 will be set aside after the sale to Blackhawk for a community health care fund if it becomes necessary for the community to buy back the hospital from Blackhawk.

Blackhawk has requested from the Sierra County Commission the continuation of a current two-mil levy for community health care until it sunsets in 2005, with the levy’s proceeds continuing to support hospital operations under Blackhawk’s ownership.

County commissioners are investigating the legality of continuing the mil levy to benefit what will be a privately owned hospital.

Blackhawk further requested that a new property levy be put before voters when the current levy expires.

Asked what will happen if voters turn down a new levy in 2005, Hainline said the failure of that measure would have a dramatic effect on Blackhawk’s ability to run the hospital.

Hainline said the denial of a new levy would make for a very undesirable situation, but that he would be prepared to go forward and thinks he can sustain hospital operations without it.

Blackhawk must demonstrate that the hospital needs and deserves the community’s support, Hainline said.

Whether a property tax abatement will be granted to Blackhawk’s Sierra Vista Hospital, and for the new hospital Blackhawk will build, will be decided during the ongoing due diligence process.

SVH, under various owners, has never paid property taxes, according to Gary Whitehead.

The City of T or C has notified Blackhawk that the city’s contribution from gross receipts taxes to SVH will cease once Blackhawk has purchased the hospital.

City officials have not said if they will eliminate the one-quarter percent GRT or continue the tax and use its revenues for other purposes.

Having completed a preliminary due diligence process, Kendra Healthcare Services will begin managing Sierra Vista Hospital on April 1, and begin an on-site due diligence process that is expected to take 60 days.

The purposes for installing Kendra as the hospital’s manager are to phase in new management as D. Rush approaches retirement and to give Blackhawk the opportunity to see that they are buying what has been represented to them, David Bryant said.

Bryant added that the hospital will be left with Kendra’s “management tools” even if Kendra and Blackhawk leave without buying the hospital.

Kendra will charge $50,000 for 60 days of management services. Medicare will pay Kendra’s fee, Bryant said.

Hainline said if Medicare doesn’t pay, he will.

Sierra County Sentinel publisher Myrna Kohs asked provocatively if Blackhawk and Kendra “can walk out after 60 days with your nose in our business?”

Matt Hainline answered Kohs, tersely, “Yes.”

Though Kendra will assume hospital management in April, SVH Administrator Dee Rush will remain “in charge” until she retires. She also has accepted Blackhawk’s offer to serve on their board while they pursue the acquisition of other hospitals, Bryant said.

Rush said she will retire when the sale is completed sometime this summer, possibly July.

Local individuals will serve on Blackhawk’s SVH Board of Directors and JPC members will be invited to serve on an advisory board.

As owner and manager of SVH, Blackhawk and Kendra will go through a phase of studying the community’s needs and determining what medical services the hospital can offer or expand, Hainline said, adding that obstetrics and gynecology will be among the first services to be considered.

All current SVH employees will have the same jobs they now have, and with the same pay, and more people probably will be hired as hospital services are expanded. One person will have a community relation’s job, Bryant said.

Hainline said Blackhawk will maintain SVH’s current contracts with local vendors and service providers.

The hospital must continue to care for indigent patients in accordance with the sales contract and New Mexico law, Hainline said.

Hainline said that within the next six months he will choose from one of four sites in T or C that he has considered for Blackhawk’s new facility.

Blackhawk’s new hospital will be a 35,000- to 45,000-square-foot facility able to care for as many as 25 patients per day. Blackhawk will operate a clinic along with the hospital, Hainline said.

Hainline said a new hospital will help attract doctors and other medical professionals. A name for the hospital has not been decided, but it will not be called Blackhawk, he added.

Hainline said he and Bryant are very pleased with the community’s response to their plans to buy Sierra Vista Hospital and build a new hospital after Wednesday’s public forum.

“We heard lots of things and were vary wary. The deal could have been unraveled,” Hainline said.

Instead, Hainline said he feels the momentum needed to build a hospital can be created. “We will succeed only with your patronage and support,” he said.

More about Blackhawk,

Kendra, Hainline and Bryant

Matt Hainline’s background is in real estate development and construction with 10 years experience building medical facilities including emergency rooms and outpatient facilities for HMOs and doctors’ groups, the Blackhawk president and CEO said.

Kendra President and CEO David Bryant has operated hospitals for 10 years and has acquired hospitals for the third largest hospital company in the United States the last five years.

Forming their relationship two years ago, Hainline said he and Bryant identified a segment of the hospital world - rural facilities and Critical Access hospitals – that has been overlooked by larger companies.

Critical Access is a federal program established the last few years, which provides for quicker and more complete reimbursements to rural hospitals.

Bryant said Blackhawk and Kendra have been looking for communities with high percentages of Medicare recipients.

Sierra Vista Hospital is set to be the first of 15 to 25 hospitals Blackhawk expects to acquire within five years.

Blackhawk has signed letters of intent to purchase two hospitals in other communities, which cannot be revealed due to confidentiality agreements with those communities, Bryant said.

<<<   >>>

…Support the troops in war

Community leaders Thursday formed the Support The Troops Committee that encourages everyone in Sierra County to “Show Our Colors” every Friday by displaying the flag, Old Glory, and wearing red, white and blue as a show of support for the troops engaged in war in Iraq. The committee has established a bank account at Bank of the Southwest to raise money for promotions and to buy flags to give to citizens who can’t afford to buy one to put on their homes or vehicles. Money left over in the fund will benefit the local Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall that the community is purchasing for permanent display at the new Veterans Memorial Park. The committee and all concerned citizens also meet every Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Century 21 building, 374 S. Foch St., for prayer and to express support for the troops. Those attending Thursday’s meeting were Julia Cooper of the Elephant Butte Chamber of Commerce, Bobby and Maggie Allen of the T or C/Sierra County Chamber of Commerce, Jim Bersch of Loretta’s gift shop, Mario Maez of The Money Man, and Thomas James, Andrea Freeman and Bill & Mercy Howell, all four of Howell Associates Century 21.

DJ photo by Jennifer Wark

War against Iraq begins

Rep. Pearce supports

troops & President Bush

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce, R-2^nd Congressional District of New Mexico, said he supports U.S. troops and President Bush after Wednesday night’s military action in Iraq.

“The United States is rising to the challenge and meeting great defiance with great action to disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. America has a responsibility to address the gravest threat of our time: the connection between rogue regimes, weapons of mass destruction and the forces of global terrorism,” Congressman Pearce said.

“The Iraqi people live under a dictator who has brought them decades of war, misery and torture. Their lives and their freedom matter little to Saddam Hussein, an international criminal who threatens the welfare of his country and that of his neighbors,” Pearce said.

“Getting rid of Saddam would be an act of humanity for the Iraqi people. American troops will liberate their country,” he said.

“I am keeping our military's brave men and women in my prayers, and I hope that you will lift them up in yours,” he said in his statement to his constituents of southern New Mexico as 300,000 U.S. and ally troops from England and Australia march towards Baghdad.

“May God Bless our men and women who wear the uniforms that represent freedom, choice and democracy. And, may God Bless America,” Pearce said.

Meanwhile, after Stealth bombers began their raid Wednesday evening (MST) on Baghdad in an attempt to take out the Iraqi leadership, Hussein in a televised statement called upon the Iraqi people to take up their swords in their homeland battle against “infidels” and the “forces of evil.”

President Bush said Wednesday America can expect casualties and a lengthier war than had been originally anticipated.

Several Iraqi troops surrendered with white flags before the war was made official.

The Bush administration expects that many of Iraq’s 400,000 troops will flee, but that greater resistance is expected from at least 15,000 Republic Guardsmen as U.S. and ally troops advance onto Baghdad.

<<<   >>>

This lavender rose found in Truth or Consequences is for Queen Elizabeth.
DJ photo by Jennifer Wark

BLM seeks public comments

about off-highway vehicle use

Schedules meetings

in Datil, Albuquerque

and Socorro

SOCORRO -The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has scheduled a series of meetings to begin next week to discuss Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) use on publicly managed land.

The meetings are related to work by the BLM-Socorro field office to write a land-use plan for Socorro and Catron Counties.

“Because OHV issues were mentioned often during earlier public meetings about the revised land use plan, we believe these meetings will help us focus on current and future public interest,” said Kate Padilla, BLM-Socorro field office manager.

Meeting dates and locations are:

Wednesday, March 26, at the Datil Fire Station/Training Center in Datil;

Thursday, March 27, at the BLM-Albuquerque Field Office, 435 Montano Road NE in Albuquerque;

Wednesday, April 2, at the Macey Center (Gallena Room) at New Mexico Tech in Socorro.

The meetings will begin at 5 p.m. with an open house, followed at 6:30 p.m. with a brief presentation about BLM's OHV program and issues the public has identified. The meetings will conclude with additional public comments and questions.

“Motorized OHV use has increased substantially in recent years because of technological advances, greater public interest in outdoor recreation and the rapid growth of the West's cities and suburbs," according to Environmental Planner Charles Carroll of the BLM-Socorro field office.

The number of OHVs registered in New Mexico has grown by about 240 percent since 1990, according to the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles.

As the public increasingly relies on public lands for motorized recreation, the impacts associated with this use continue to grow.

"Balancing public use and enjoyment with the protection of important resources requires more effective management of the vast network of roads and trails," Carroll said.

The BLM received more than 200 letters and comment forms and input from about 50 people who attended "scoping meetings" that the BLM held from May through September 2002. The meetings were an integral part of the BLM's approach to writing the revised land-use plan, called a Resource Management Plan Revision/Environmental Impact Statement (RMPR/EIS).

The summary of comments and letters is available in the Scoping Report at the BLM-Socorro field office, 198 Neel Ave. NW in Socorro, or online at www.nm.blm.gov.

'"The Socorro Field Office wants to ensure a positive, inclusive approach to OHV decision making and better OHV management. Good planning outcomes require the help of local communities and residents and lots of cooperation; we hope that as many people as possible can join us at one or all of these meetings," Padilla said.

The BLM, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages about 13 million acres in New Mexico. The BLM's Socorro field office is responsible for about 1.5 million acres of that total in Socorro and Catron Counties.

Additional information about the RMPR/EIS process and the OHV meetings is available by calling Carroll, 505-838-1278, or BLM Outdoor Recreation Specialist Rob Jaggers, 505-835-0412.

<<<   >>>

The Shadow Advisory

…Support our troops but

down with the ‘Bushman’

I remember a book called Sanctions for Evil that was about the Johnson Administration’s ugly handling of the Vietnam Conflict. What I most remember about this book is how top-level officials used demeaning nouns to describe their enemy. Vietnamese were no longer people – they were “gooks.”

Basically, the book is about how the dehumanization process is used by authorities before they order those under their command to kill the enemy. It’s far easier to kill a miscreant or infidel than it is to kill a regular human being.

But I’m the kind of guy who while a child dreamt about making friends with wild bears after they chased me up the tree fearing for my life (not realizing in my sleep that bears are good tree climbers – good thing or I might have been mauled).

The desensitization process allows us to get rid of our fears by getting closer to the object we fear. We continue to get closer and closer until the phobia entirely disappears and we can now touch the object that used to make our skin crawl, like the proverbial slimy snake.

Dehumanization on the other hand creates fear – it makes monsters of normal people who have the misfortune of becoming an unworthy opponent. It makes it easier to kill.

So, what are the buzzwords Bush has been using to carry out his sanctions for evil against the Iraqi leadership, or more specifically Saddam Hussein?

Tyrant, dictator, sponsor for rape and torture, carrier of weapons of mass destruction, mass murderer of his own people – all of which paint the Iraqi leader as a target for war.

Likewise, Saddam has painted the American people as the Great White Satan, infidels and pro-Zionist, which make us targets for his sanctions for evil.

I believe war, however, should be more personal. Put leaders in the ring with boxing gloves on their hands and let ’em come out swinging. I bet Bush and Hussein would end up holding hands rather than try to cut off each other’s arms and legs or torsos or what have you.

Get them close enough to each other and maybe, just maybe they’ll shake their fear of each other and get even closer to find they are two of a kind.

But don’t expect our soldiers to do the same while they are under Bush’s orders to shoot and kill. They have a job they’ve been ordered to do. If they don’t, they could be deemed traitors. They didn’t invent the fear mongering it took to make for enemies.

It’s a damned shame that President Bush didn’t confront his fears when his daddy George Sr. was leader and got to have a first swing at Saddam 12 years ago but missed the mark.

So, on that note I will say that I support our troops while they face the dangers of war; but I abhor how our leaders sitting on the sidelines can make six digit figures while watching our youth die or suffer in battle.

I say give these guys a little push onto the playing field and maybe they’ll succumb to a higher order – an authority whose foundation is based on love and peace and not on hate and war. Amen!

<<<   >>>

OBITUARIES

Jack L. Fairless, 70, of Elephant Butte, died Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at his home. He was born Jan. 3, 1933, in Oklahoma City, OK, to Joe and Estelle Akins Fairless. He was a retired agriculture chemical sales branch manager and was retired from the U.S. Air Force. He was active at the Church at the Butte and was a member of the choir. He was an avid sportsman and a pilot. He was a past member of the Optimist Club, Masonic Lodge and Shrine. He married Bobbye J. Lea in San Antonio, TX, on Dec. 5, 1952, and they recently celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary.

Survivors include his wife, Bobbye Fairless of Elephant Butte; two daughters, Cour’De Fairless of Colorado Springs, CO, and Therese Hutchinson and husband Tom of California; his grandson, Thomas Hutchinson; a sister, Juerida Villasana of Dallas, TX; his brothers, Wade Fairless and Bill Fairless of Dallas; and his son-in-law, Leroy Tenneson of Dallas. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Sherrill Tenneson.

Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. today (Friday, March 21) in the Chapel of French Mortuary of Truth or Consequences. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 22, at the Church at the Butte with Rev. Robert Rachuig officiating. Casket bearers will be Gale Carr, Lonnie Fairless, Tom Hutchinson, Bill Poe, A.V. McFarland and Dwayne Bauer. Honorary casket bearer is Bob Webb. Interment will be in Vista Memory Gardens Cemetery in T or C. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorial contributions in Jack’s memory be sent to the Church at the Butte Building Fund, P.O. Box 1346, Elephant Butte, NM 87935. Arrangements are by French Mortuary of T or C Inc.

Gayland James Ross, 53, died Saturday, March 15, 2003, at his parent’s home in Caballo. He was born Nov. 27, 1949, in Roswell, NM, to Willard James and Betty R. (Strong) Ross. He was an oilfield worker more than 20 years who spent the last few years in apartment maintenance and self-employment. He returned to Sierra County, where he spent a great deal of time fishing with his grandfather as a child, to spend the last of his days.

Survivors include his two sons, Christopher C. Ross of Texas and Ty Ross of Roswell; four daughters, Christie Ross, Tammy Morales and husband Sam, Jamie Ross and Erica Ross, all of Hobbs; six grandchildren; his father, Willard James Ross and wife Colleen of Caballo; his sister, Glenda Toraya and husband Manny of Hawaii; two uncles, Dalton W. Ross of Roswell and Jimmie Ross of Oklahoma; and his aunt, Anita Chavez and husband John of Caballo. He was preceded in death by his mother, Betty R. Strong; his brother, Mike Ross; and his grandparents.

A time of remembering and reflecting will be held in his honor on Tuesday, April 1, at the family home in Caballo. Family and friends are welcome to attend. Arrangements are by Sierra Funeral Home and Sierra Crematory, 507 W. McAdoo St. in Truth or Consequences.

Julia Helena Carpenter Green Cowen, 79, of Dayton, TX, died Thursday, March 13, 2003, in a Houston, TX hospital. She was born April 29, 1932, in Hannibal, MO, to Marshall Burle Green and Lilly Blanche Ogle. She had lived most of her life in Truth or Consequences, NM, and had moved to the Dayton area a few years ago to be near her family.

Very active and creative, she enjoyed making all kinds of ceramics and southwestern pottery. She also sewed, making all of her children’s clothes when they were young as well as refurbishing and making new clothes for old dolls. A very giving person, she was known for giving away many of her creations to friends, family and those less fortunate. She loved to dance and would go at least once or twice a week. She also enjoyed classic country music and had a vast collection of records and eight-track tapes.

Survivors include her sons, George Henry Green of T or C, and Marshall Wayne Green and Charles Dale Green, both of Dayton, Texas, her daughters, Cathy Fay Strickland of Dayton, TX, Linda Jean Fuqua of Deming, NM, and Etta Lynn Worley of T or C; her sister, Virginia Woolery of California; 29 grandchildren; 47 great-grandchildren; and  numerous nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband of 44 years George Braxton Green; second husband of seven years, Willard "Curly" Cowen; her sisters, Betty Bassinger, Mildred Langdon and Janie Bassinger; her half-brother, Chester Carpenter; and her half-sisters, Irene and Lillian Carpenter.

Funeral services were held Thursday, March 20, in the chapel of Sterling Funeral Home in Dayton, TX. Floral tributes will be gratefully accepted, however donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the American Heart Association.

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