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pickup. She had been dating Max Allen for six or seven years. She was 50, he is 49. The Broadview farmer spoke little, in contrast with Mary’s chatter. Several times a month, Max took Mary to LaVilla for dinner. He filled her plate himself, so that she would eat more than the scanty helpings she was prone to take. They also went shopping at the pawn shop her former landlord Roy Beaulieu owned. “She was quieter when she was with him,” Beaulieu says. “But then he’d find something, and she'd say, ‘You don’t need that. You can’t afford that.” But it was Mary who bought a set of wedding rings from Beaulieu e remembers seeing her about two weeks ago in Clo vis, walking by herself. Last Friday, a farmer was startled when he found Mary’s body near Bushland, Texas, west of Amarillo. She never completed her last walk, a 100-mile trek back to Clovis. The 5-foot tall figure was lying face down along a once row. Detectives couldn't tell at first whether they had found the body of a young boy or an older woman. She was dressed in jeans and a blue and red shirt with yellow flowers. Her dark green sweater had been folded into a makeshift pillow. The weeds were tessed down in the small pllow where she had lain. Near the body was a con venience store bag, contain ing Cheetos and sweet rolls, some partially eaten. Her shoes lay nearby. They never found her trade mark ballcap. Detectives found an odd assortment of trinkets in Mary’s pockets. There were multi-colored suckers, mussel shells from the playa lakes, pecans, a crumored $5 bill, and an unusual amount of change. “There was no sign of foul play or how she had gotten where she was,” said E. Jay Hall, Randall County justice of the peace. Two prescriptions from a Tucumcari pharmacy pro vided the key to Mary’s identity. Max had taken her to the doctor the week before her death for medicine to help her bronchitis and allergies. An autopsy revealed that Mary had died from viral pneumonia, caused by exposure. But, pathologist Dr. Ralph Erdmann also found evi dence that Mary had a ter minal kidney disease which could have caused chemical imbalances in her body. “He said the chemical imbalance could very easily have produced mental symp toms and could explain some of her eccentric actions,” Hail said. On Friday, May 19th, Mary’s daughter Ivy Betts received a visit from a policeman, who told the Por tales woman he had some bad news. Ivy had seen Max that Wednesday, while he looked for Mary. “He said they'd had a fight and that she’d taken off walking,” Ivy said. “He thought maybe she’d come back to Portales. When he didn’t find her, he went back to Amarillo to look.” Max told police that he and Mary fought about money the last time he had seen her. She and Max often traveled together in Max’s pickup camper. Before their fight, they were on a trip to Amarillo where they went fishing and Watches a cut ting horse show. Mary took off walking at midnight Tuesday, and Max never saw her again. Mary called Amarillo police several hours later to report that Max had assaulted her, but she gave a first name of “Betty,” and an age a decade after her 1939 birthdate. She didn’t want to press charges. She wanted a ride to The Salvation Army. Police officers gave her a card with a hotline number and escorted her to the shel ter before 4 a.m. Mary left after breakfast and walked to a convenience store. A clerk there said she had asked directions to either Clovis or Portales. Mary was walking May 17 when it began raining late that afternoon west of Amar illo. A more violent storm dumped marble-sized hail early Thursday morning. “She was probably io cold and wet and too sick to move,” Hail said. When authorities found her just before noon Friday, it appeared she had been dead less than 24 hours. Max and Ivy made arrangements for Mary’s graveside funeral service in Weinert, Texas, where sever al family members live. Mary’s mother, sister and two brothers, all from centr al Texas, planned to attend her funeral. Her son was driving from Washington. Ivy chose a spray of red roses and pink and white carnations to cover the casket at Mary’s funeral Friday. “They had suggested wild flowers, but I told them, no, I wanted something pretty,” Ivy says. Max asked to put the wedding rings in Mary’s casket. “They never did get mar ried,” Ivy says. “They talked about it a lot, but whenever they set the date, one of them would cancel.” Mary had divorced Ivy’s father seven years ago, and resumed using her maiden name, Davis. Ivy’s husband Roy passes her their 2-month-old daughter, Joyce Gay Lyne. Mary’s two older grand children play in the background. Ivy rocks the baby and fights back tears. “She’s still wearing all the clothes that Mama bought her,” Ivy says. Mary helped her daughter, who had a difficult, emergency Caesarian delivery. “Roy was holding the baby the other day and he asked, ‘Why did we bring you into the world, with things the way they are? Ivy says. “I told him, ‘She’s here to take her grandma’s place.”
Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Sun, May 28, 1989
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 13 Sep 2026
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