A6 Thursday, August 22, 2013 OBITUARIES
Sammy F. Herron
Services for Sammy F. Herron, 69, of New Deal, TX, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 24, 2013, in the Abernathy Church of Christ. Burial will follow in the Abernathy Cemetery under the direction of Abell Funeral Home and Flower Shop of Abernathy, TX. Sam died Friday, August 16, 2013, in Lubbock, TX. He was bor n March 2, 1944, in Checotah, OK, to Gabe and Martha Jane (Bullard) Herron. He served in the U. S. Ar my and moved to New Deal in 1979, from Lubbock. He married Ann Grif-
GENERAL/OBITUARIES fin on March 19, 1965, in Roswell, N.M. He owned and operated Sam’s TV until retiring in 2010. He was a member of the NRA, loved hunting, watching the Dallas Cowboys and riding his Harley. He led singing at the New Deal Church of Christ, but his main love was his family and grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a brother and four sisters. He is survived by his wife, Ann Herron, of New Deal, TX; and three children: Robert Herron and wife, Angela, of Colorado Springs, CO, Amy Pharr and husband, Paul, and Tommy Herron and wife, Melody, all of New Deal, TX; eight grandchildren; mother -in-law, Donnie Griffin, of New Deal, TX; a brother, Charlie Herron, and wife, Diane; two sisters: Betty Walker, of Roswell, N.M., and Vicki Larson and husband, Larry, of Lubbock, TX. The family suggests memorials be sent to the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation, P. O. Box 310, Fort Atkinson, WI
53538.
Ruth Clem-Quesenberry
Funeral services will be held for Ruth Clem-Quesenberry, 91, of Roswell, at 1 p.m. Thursday, August 22, 2013, at Gateway Church followed by a graveside at 3:30 p.m. at Twin Oaks Cemetery in Artesia, NM. Ruth passed away on Monday, August 19, 2013. Vada Ruth Coleman was bor n to Rosa and Loyd “Doc” Coleman in Coryell County, of Texas, on October 19, 1921. She spent her early years
surviving the Great Depression on the Coleman homestead in Levita, Texas, before the family hit the road to follow Doc as he worked the Texas oil fields. Ruth, along with her sister, Florene, and their parents, lived many years in a large military-style tent before they went “big time,” building a 19-foot travel trailer to continue their travels through west Texas and southeaster n New Mexico. The family lived for a time in Artesia, New Mexico, where Ruth met and married Howard Dee “Jack” Clem just before the beginning of World War II. The faithful wife followed her husband from base to base during his training until he was shipped out to serve as a SeaBee in the Pacific front. Upon his return at the end of the war, Ruth and Jack settled in Artesia, where she worked side-byside with him as they established Clem Plumbing, opened Artesia’s first Firestone Store and brought Culligan Soft Water to the area; all while she raised three children
Roswell Daily Record
and led many community groups. The couple was on the move once more, this time to Portales, New Mexico, after their youngest child graduated from high school. They briefly lived in Tucumcari, New Mexico, before Jack retired and the two re-settled in Roswell, New Mexico. After her husband’s death in 1979, Ruth filled her time with grandchildren, singing tenor in a senior citizen quartet and strumming the ukulele until she met Don Quesenberry during a church service where, much to her surprise, Cupid struck again. The octogenarians shared a love for travel, so when Don asked Ruth if she’d prefer a wedding ring or a trip to Hawaii to celebrate their marriage, Ruth shouted for him to buy the tickets and she notified her children with a poem by email of the upcoming wedding, as she packed for ten days on sunny shores. Ruth and Don continued with many travel adventures over the following years until diminishing health grounded them.
Then, on Monday evening, August 19, 2013, Ruth quietly took her final journey from this Earth to the arms of the Savior she both loved and served. Ruth leaves behind her husband of ten years, Don Quesenberry, along with her children: Dekka Ruth House and her husband, Joseph House, Vicki Lee Shaw and her husband, Dewayne Shaw, and Lloyd Burr Clem and his wife, Bee J Clem. Ruth’s grandchildren include: Todd House and his wife, Geneva, Susan House, Amy D. Shaw-Jackson and her husband, T ripp, as well as Farrell Clem and his wife, Sue, and Shelley Bristow and her husband, Randy. She also enjoyed seven greatgrandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
Please take a moment to share your thoughts and memories with the family in the online registry book at andersonbethany.com.
Services are under the direction of AndersonBethany Funeral and Crematory.
For leak, Manning gets 35 years — stiffest punishment
AP Photos
Top: Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted into a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Wednesday. Bottom: Manning wears handcuffs before a sentencing hearing in his court martial. The military judge overseeing Manning's trial sentenced Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for giving U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks.
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning stood at attention in his crisp dress uniform Wednesday and learned the price he will pay for spilling an unprecedented trove of gover nment secrets: up to 35 years in prison, the stiffest punishment ever handed out in the U.S. for leaking to the media. Flanked by his lawyers, Manning, 25, showed no reaction as military judge Col. Denise Lind announced the sentence without explanation in a proceeding that lasted just a few minutes. A gasp could be heard among the spectators, and one woman buried her face in her hands. Then, as guards hurried Manning out of the courtroom, about a half-dozen supporters shouted from the back: “We’ll keep fighting for you, Bradley!” and “You’re our hero!” With good behavior and credit for the more than three years he has been held, Manning could be out in as little as seven years, said his lawyer, David Coombs. The soldier was also demoted and will be dishonorably discharged. The sentencing fired up the long-running debate over whether Manning was a whistleblower or a traitor for giving more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic documents, plus battlefield footage, to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. By volume alone, it was the biggest leak of classified
material in U.S. history, bigger even than the Pentagon Papers a generation ago. In a statement from WikiLeaks London, founder Julian Assange decried Manning’s trial and conviction as “an affront to basic concepts of Western justice.” But he called the sentence a “significant tactical victory” because the soldier could be paroled so quickly. Manning could have gotten 90 years behind bars. Prosecutors asked for at least 60 as a warning to other soldiers, while Manning’s lawyer suggested he get no more than 25, because some of the documents he leaked will be declassified by then. Military prosecutors had no immediate comment on the sentence, and the White House said only that any request for a presidential pardon would be considered “like any other application.” The case was part of an unprecedented string of prosecutions brought by the U.S. government in a crackdown on security breaches. The Obama administration has charged seven people with leaking to the media; only three people were prosecuted under all previous presidents combined. Manning, an Army intelligence analyst from Crescent, Okla., digitally copied and released Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department cables while working in 2010 in Iraq. He also leaked video of a 2007
utive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Febased group that opposes efforts to stop licenses for immigrants. New Mexico is among 11 states with laws to allow immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, to obtain a driver’s license or driving privilege card, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, most of those laws haven’t taken effect yet. Washington and New Mexico have long offered the licenses to immigrants, and have the broadest policies in the country because the same license granted to a U.S. citizen is available to
immigrants, including those here illegally. In contrast to New Mexico’s double-digit decline this year, Washington state has seen a 5 percent drop in first-time licenses for people without a Social Security number, according to the state’s Department of Licensing. There were 8,467 licenses issued in the first six months of the year in Washington. In New Mexico, 3,082 new foreign national licenses were granted from January through June, down from 3,886 in the same period in 2012. However, license renewals for immigrants have remained relatively stable — declining
Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that mistakenly killed at least nine people, including a Reuters photographer. Manning said he did it to expose the U.S. military’s “bloodlust” and generate debate over the wars and U.S. policy. He was found guilty by the judge last month of 20 crimes, including six violations of the Espionage Act, but was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, which carried a potential life in prison without parole. Whistleblower advocates said the punishment was unprecedented in its severity. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists said “no other leak case comes close.” The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and other activists condemned the sentence. “When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system,” said Ben Wizner, head of the ACLU’s speech and technology project. Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank and author of the book “Necessary Secrets,” welcomed Manning’s punishment. “The sentence is a tragedy for Bradley Manning, but it is one he brought upon himself,” he
Driver’s licenses for immigrants declining in NM
SANTA FE (AP) — As more states are preparing to give driving privileges to immigrants who illegally entered the U.S., heavily Hispanic New Mexico appears headed in the other direction. The state is issuing fewer driver’s licenses to them, with the number of firsttime licenses dropping 21 percent during the first half of this year, according to a review of state records by The Associated Press. The reason for the abrupt decline remains unclear. Officials in Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration say there’s been no recent crackdown by the Motor Vehicle Divi-
sion and the requirements for immigrants to obtain a license haven’t changed, although the governor has fought unsuccessfully for three years to scrap the license policy. An immigrant rights advocate suggests the weak economy may be a cause. The state economy has been lagging behind the broader national recovery, posting much smaller job growth figures than national numbers in recent months. “Immigrant workers generally go where they have family and where they have job opportunities. Clearly there aren’t many job opportunities in New Mexico,” said Marcela Diaz, exec-
only 2 percent in the first half of the year compared to 2012. Martinez has made repealing the license law a centerpiece of her agenda in a state where Hispanics account for 47 percent of the population. She contends New Mexico has become a magnet for outof-state immigrants seeking a license by falsely claiming they are residents of the state. However, supporters in the Democratic-controlled Legislature contend the law improves public safety by having immigrant motorists obtain insurance and adding them to the government’s license database.
said. “It will certainly serve to bolster deterrence against other potential leakers.”
But he also warned that the sentence will ensure that Edward Snowden — the National Security Agency leaker who was charged with espionage in a potentially more explosive case while Manning’s court-martial was under way — “will do his best never to retur n to the United States and face a trial and stiff sentence.”
Coombs said that he was in tears after the sentencing and that Manning comforted him by saying: “Don’t worry about it. It’s all right. I know you did your best. ... I’m going to be OK. I’m going to get through this.”
Coombs said Manning will seek a presidential pardon or a commuted sentence.
“The time to end Brad’s suf fering is now,” the defense attor ney said. “The time for our president to focus on protecting whistleblowers instead of punishing them is now.”
Coombs read from a letter Manning will send to the president in which he said: “I regret if my actions hurt anyone or har med the United States. It was never my intent to hurt anyone. ... When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others.” He made a similar apology during the sentencing phase of the case.
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