New Mexico

Jerry Don Thompson (born November 21, 1942) is Regents Piper Professor of History at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. He is a prolific author of books on a variety of related topics, specializing in the American Civil War, the history of the Southwestern United States, and Texas history. According to WorldCat, two of his books are available from more than six hundred major libraries worldwide – Confederate General of the West: Henry Hopkins Sibley, and Civil War in the Southwest: Recollections of the Sibley Brigade.

Harold Joe Waldrum (August 23, 1934 – December 13, 2003) was an American artist whose abstract works depict color studies especially of the old adobe churches of Northern New Mexico. He also used a Polaroid SX-70 camera to photograph many of the churches, initially as part of the process in creating his paintings. However, this collection of thousands of photographs became a body of work in and of itself and was exhibited at several galleries and museums.
Before pursuing an artistic career, Waldrum graduated from Western State College and became a public school teacher in Kansas, where he taught music and art for a decade-and-a-half. After receiving a graduate degree from Fort Hays State College in 1970, he became a full-time painter, moving to New Mexico, the focal point of much of his work.
In the later part of his career, Waldrum endeavored to preserve the historic churches that were the inspiration for his paintings. In 1985, he founded an organization to promote this goal and produced a series of documentaries about the deterioration and ultimately demolition of the churches. In the 1980s and 90s, he collaborated with a few printmakers to create a collection of aquatint etchings and linocuts in a style very similar to his paintings.
Waldrum died on December 13, 2003, and he is buried in Columbus, New Mexico, a village near the Mexico–United States border. His works are held in the collections of the Museum of New Mexico, the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Albuquerque Museum, and the Harwood Foundation of Taos, New Mexico.

C. Fred Chambers (March 22, 1918 – November 13, 1989) was an American oilman and political activist. He was the co-founder of several oil and has companies active in North America and the Netherlands. He was an aide to former President George H. W. Bush.

William Frank "Dunny" Goode (October 24, 1929 – June 1, 2004) was an American football player and coach. He was the tenth head football coach for Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, serving for five seasons, from 1978 to 1982, and compiling a record of 21–29–1.Goode played college football as a halfback at Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. As a senior in 1951, he was the second in the nation in rushing yards with 1,399. He was selected by the Washington Redskins in the 26th round of the 1952 NFL Draft with the 307th overall pick.

Barbara Funkhouser (March 1, 1930 – August 15, 2014) was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. Funkhouser was the first woman to serve as editor of the El Paso Times, a position she held from 1980 until 1986.

Judson Crews (June 30, 1917 – May 17, 2010) was an American poet, bookseller and small press publisher.

Delmas Howe (born October 22, 1935) is an American painter and muralist whose figurative work depicts mythological and archetypal – sometimes homoerotic – themes in a neoclassical, realist style.After graduation from high school he progressed through undergraduate work at Wichita State University, then four years in the US Air Force, a move to the East Coast, graduate work at Yale University and several years of classes in NYC at the Art Students League of New York while working as a professional musician. After a return to the West and a successful design studio in Amarillo, Texas, he returned to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. His work is in the collections of a number of museums including the Albuquerque Museum where his painting The Three Graces from 1978 is on permanent view, the British Museum, Amarillo Art Center, and the New Mexico Museum of Art.The Truth or Consequences of Delmas Howe is a documentary which explores Howe's life, his work, and the controversy it has generated.

Claire Yvonne King (born January 3, 1946) professionally Cissy King, is an American-born singer and dancer best known as a featured performer on The Lawrence Welk Show television program.
King was born in Trinidad, Colorado. Her father was a geologist employed by an oil company. The family relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico when Cissy was three.
An accomplished dancer since she was a toddler, Cissy, along with her brother John, won first place at the National Ballroom Dancing Championships in San Francisco, California when she was 14. They captured first place two more times and were also named U.S Ballroom Couple of the Year. Later, when attending the University of New Mexico, she majored in recreation and physical education and was a cheerleader, gymnast, and was on the synchronised swimming team. She continued to dance, in various ballroom competitions and on stage such as the Six Flags Over Texas campus revue.
In 1967, Cissy became Bobby Burgess's dance partner on The Lawrence Welk Show when his first partner, Barbara Boylan, left to get married. For the next dozen years, she became one of the most popular performers on the show with her vivacious personality, singing talents and her natural dance moves. In 1974, she was honored with the Dance Masters of America award for outstanding contributions to the field of dance.
After leaving the show in late 1978, she continued to perform, dancing for several years with her own solo act "Two Fellows"; and acting in the Broadway touring production of Always Patsy.
Today, King lives in Albuquerque, where she continues to dance, and is active in creating new shows in major venues across her home state.

Ronald "Ron" Davis (born 1937) is an American painter whose work is associated with geometric abstraction, abstract illusionism, lyrical abstraction, hard-edge painting, shaped canvas painting, color field painting, and 3D computer graphics. He is a veteran of nearly seventy solo exhibitions and hundreds of group exhibitions.