Las Cruces Daily Digest Sunday, August 16, 2026
Ty's Take
Carol Ann Knapp Foreman and Clarence Villemez are gone, which means two more people who knew this valley when it was different are no longer here to remember it out loud. The Bulletin also ran a piece this week about a local jeweler whose other life was on the golf course, and that's the kind of thing that sticks with you in a town like this, where people didn't just show up for a paycheck but actually built something, made something, stayed put long enough to get good at more than one thing. We're in the middle of a growth spurt that's paving over pecan orchards and bringing in people who'll be gone in five years, so maybe it's worth sitting with the fact that we're losing the ones who stayed. The older folks around here know what the Mesilla Valley looked like before the sprawl, and that knowledge walks out the door when they do.
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Las Cruces Bulletin
Carol Ann Knapp Foreman, a longtime Las Cruces resident who co-founded Valley Transit Mix and Valley Leasing & Development with her husband, passed away peacefully on May 16, 2026, at age 88. Born in Lovington, New Mexico, and educated at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, Foreman was known...
Clarence "Clare" Villemez, a biochemistry professor who spent 30 years at the University of Wyoming before retiring in 2003, died peacefully in his sleep on January 9, 2026, in Las Cruces at age 87. He relocated to Las Cruces with his wife Barbara following his retirement and is survived by her,...
Twin passions: jewelry and golf
Johanna Jo Contreras, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Mesilla Valley Christian School, discovered her entrepreneurial spirit through the Sonoma Elementary Kids Can Program, where she learned about earning and managing money. The young entrepreneur has channeled her interests into two passions:...
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