Catron County Senior Citizens to Lose Home

By Christy Burns

Jerry and Kathy Hudson of Reserve, New Mexico recently received news that they would soon be required to move from the house in which they have been living for the past two years. For the couple it was a devastating blow. The owner has a potential buyer and has informed them that they will be given 30 days notice to vacate the premises when the deal is finalized. Actually, they first were told they had to be out several months ago, but arrangements have been made allowing them to remain in the house on a month-by-month basis. Although they are without the means to start anew, these two refuse to give up. They are in a community they love, which only fuels their determination to withstand any present trial.

They continue to be ever-present supporters at athletic events, as they have been for the past two decades, and are well beloved by the students and facility of Reserve Independent Schools. Also, they have long been active at Reserve Senior Center, both playing bingo, Jerry playing pool, and Kathy puzzle making and quilting. They are faithful and active members of Joy Fellowship. In their many activities they make significant contributions to the well-being of others of all ages in the community.

Jerry Hudson is a native son. He recalls his days of yesteryear in Reserve when he spent countless hours rambling throughout the rugged landscape in search of boyhood adventures, and enjoying winter days filled with skiing and sledding the snow-laden hills near his now long-gone home in Saliz Pass. He loves to tell the stories of the old school that burned down years ago in the Saliz and of the young teacher, Ima Jean McClure, who lived with his family, and of riding to school aboard a “bus,” that was merely an open bed with benches along the sides, driven my his mother and her helper, Teflo Rodriquez, who kept the kids settled down in the back. Among his many reminiscences, at the very young age of five, Jerry recalls wrangling horses alongside the grown men, igniting a spark that would fuel his life passion for the creatures.

Born Geraldi Wayne Hudson, the youngest of five children to Dick and Cora Nell Hudson, Jerry took his first lung-filled breath in Reserve, New Mexico on March 24, 1926, and found his heart tethered to the place thereafter despite a stint in military service and years of other wanderings, mostly in regard to horses.

Jerry embarked upon a career of training racehorses. The majority of that time was spent on the east coast where he found racing to be the most prosperous. Jerry’s love for the horses was boundless, yet his heart longed for the place of his birth.

The summer of 1978 found Jerry back home in Reserve. Although he had traveled extensively during the war and while training racehorses, he never found a place that felt so good to return to as he did Reserve. His return that summer also brought change to a lovely woman by the name of Kathleen “Kathy” Newlin, whom Jerry eventually married on Valetine’s Day 1981. Shortly thereafter, the two set off to further pursue his career in the world of racehorses until his retirement at the age of sixty-five.

Kathy Newlin Hudson began life on May 24, 1935 in Kodel, Kansas. Kathy was the second to the youngest of eight children born to Russell and Clara Newlin. During a camp meeting, when Kathy was but a young child, her mother proclaimed to a visiting missionary that she would be willing to let her children serve on the mission field. It wouldn’t be until Kathy was in high school that the words her mother professed would become her own personal calling.

After high school Kathy studied to become a nurse. It would be three years before the door to her long expected dream of becoming a missionary was opened. In 1961 Kathy finally went onto the mission field. For sixteen years she served in Northern Transball, South Africa. Sadly, during a return trip stateside, Kathy received a diagnosis that would wrench her dream from her. She had multiple sclerosis. Advised not to return to South Africa, Kathy began a new career by attending Nurse Practitioner school.

At the end of two years, Kathy finished school and set out to find work. Her search led her to Reserve, New Mexico in 1978. She was reminded instantly of her South African home. Kathy found work at the local clinic as the Nurse Practitioner, where she came to know and love the many families, young and old, in need of her care. It was at that time she met her future husband, a horse trainer by the name of Geraldi Hudson.

Soon after being married, Jerry and Kathy left Reserve for a span of nearly thirteen years, but the thought of “home” would spur their hearts with longing to return. After retirement the two succumbed to that homesickness and returned to Reserve in February 1993 where they have lived in a trailer park that they purchased and operated for many years, living in one of the homes.

Two years ago, upon seeing the condition of the aged mobile home in which they were living, a relative of Kathy felt they needed a better place to reside, moving them into their current dwelling with the hope of purchasing it on their behalf. Now, because the contract to purchase the house has fallen through, and because their former mobile home is in such severe deterioration as to be unlivable, they are in the unthinkable position of facing homelessness at the ages of 87 and 78.

So while Jerry is somewhat anxious about his uncertain housing situation, Kathy feels hopeful because she realizes that they are in a community that deeply cares for one another, including them. They have had many people express their love and concern, with several already making financial contributions.

In fact, their church, Joy Fellowship in Reserve, has established a fund at First State Bank to raise funds to purchase a dwelling where they may live out their lives without having to be displaced from the community they so love. The church has set a goal of raising the necessary funds via free-will offerings, raffle ticket sales, fundraiser dinners, and street vending. The first raffle will begin in January and will feature a beautifully handmade quilt, an original painting by a local artist, a powerful chain saw, and a load of firewood with a dozen fire starters. For more information as to how you may help, please contact Keith Riddle at 575-533-6373 (home) or 575-533-6400 (work).