If you're looking for Portales News Tribune obituaries, you've probably noticed something confusing. The name on the masthead doesn't always match the name on the search bar anymore. Honestly, trying to track down a local record in Roosevelt County has become a bit of a digital scavenger hunt.
Back in 2016, the Portales News-Tribune merged with the Clovis News Journal. This created what we now know as The Eastern New Mexico News. If you're searching for a loved one who lived in Portales, you aren't just looking at one small-town paper anymore. You're looking at a regional powerhouse that archives everything under a different digital roof.
The Real Way to Find Recent Portales Obituaries
Let’s be real: Google isn't always your friend here. Sometimes you type in a name and get hit with a wall of generic "tribute" sites that want $20 just to show you a photo. Skip that.
For the most accurate, up-to-date records, you basically have two main paths. The first is the official newspaper site. Since the merger, The Eastern New Mexico News handles all the local death notices. Their website has a dedicated obituary section that covers both Portales and Clovis.
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The second path is through Wheeler Mortuary. If the person lived in Portales, there is a very high chance they were handled by Wheeler. Their website often posts the full text of an obituary before it even hits the newsstand. It’s a cleaner interface, too—no pop-up ads or paywalls blocking you from seeing service times.
Searching the Archives (The 2026 Reality)
Finding someone who passed away twenty or thirty years ago is a different beast entirely. You can't just scroll through a website for that.
The Portales News-Tribune was the paper of record for decades. If you’re doing genealogy or just trying to find an old family notice, you've gotta use the New Mexico State Library resources or digital databases like NewspaperArchive.
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- Microfilm is still king. If the digital search fails, the Portales Public Library holds physical records that haven't all been indexed by Google.
- Legacy.com partnership. Most modern obituaries from the paper are automatically syndicated to Legacy. This is helpful because it allows you to set "alerts" for specific surnames in Roosevelt County.
- Social Media. Kinda weird, I know, but many Portales families now post full obituaries on Facebook community groups before the newspaper even prints them.
How to Submit an Obituary Without Getting Ripped Off
Submission has changed. You don't just walk into a small office on Main Street and hand over a handwritten note. Now, it’s mostly handled through a portal.
Expect to pay. The Portales News Tribune (via The Eastern New Mexico News) typically charges based on word count and whether you want a photo included. A "Death Notice"—which just gives the bare facts like name, age, and service time—is usually much cheaper or even free. A full "Obituary" that tells the story of their life? That's going to cost you.
Pro tip: Write the draft yourself first. Use a simple word processor to check the count. If you let the funeral home "handle it," they might use a template that adds unnecessary fluff, which honestly just drives up your bill.
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Why It Still Matters
Local news is shrinking, but the obituary remains the one thing people still clip out and save. In a town like Portales, where everyone knows everyone’s business (sorta), these records are the community's collective memory. They track the history of the dairy farmers, the ENMU professors, and the families who have been in the High Plains for five generations.
Don't rely solely on one digital source. If you can't find what you're looking for on the newspaper's site, check the mortuary pages or the Roosevelt County genealogical records.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check Wheeler Mortuary first for any local Portales deaths within the last 72 hours.
- Visit the Eastern New Mexico News website and use their search filter specifically for the "Portales" category if you need a record from the last few years.
- Use the Portales Public Library’s genealogy desk for any research involving deaths prior to 2010, as many of those records are not yet fully digitized or indexed by modern search engines.