{"id":1891,"date":"2007-06-25T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-25T22:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/longtime-community-leader-killed-in-head-on-collision\/"},"modified":"2007-06-25T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-25T22:45:00","slug":"longtime-community-leader-killed-in-head-on-collision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/longtime-community-leader-killed-in-head-on-collision\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime community leader killed in head-on collision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barney Rawson, the father of state Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a> and a mentor to a number of influential Las Cruces<\/st1:city> business and community leaders, was killed Sunday night in a head-on collision in Illinois<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

Barney and Joan Rawson were in Moline<\/st1:City>, Ill.<\/st1:State><\/st1:place>, to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary and visit friends when a man who appears to have been drag racing crossed the median and struck their vehicle head-on, Lee Rawson said. His father died, and his mother will be hospitalized for a week or two and need several months to recover.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Barney Rawson was 77.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson was a successful home builder in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for many years before retiring. In addition, he was a mentor to a generation of men and women who are among today\u2019s influential community leaders.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Paul Curry, a builder and former county commissioner, said when he was in high school, Rawson sponsored his local Boy Scout post and gave high-school students an opportunity to work for him. They got to earn money and learn about building and business.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody that needed money, he always provided them with a job,\u201d Curry said. \u201cHe helped us all get started in business, and we wouldn\u2019t be in business if it weren\u2019t for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Curry said those Rawson mentored also included his brother John Curry<\/a> and Bill Quinones<\/a>, both builders, and Lee Cotter, a local Republican activist who has run unsuccessfully for state senate in the past.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson was a Republican, but his public service was focused on church and the building community, Curry said. He was a leader of the local homebuilder\u2019s association.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lee Rawson said his father\u2019s funeral is on hold until his mother is healthy enough to travel back to Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rawson is the third high-profile community leader to die in approximately a month. Mike Laurance, a former chairman of the county\u2019s GOP<\/a> and former southern regional political director for the Republican Party of New Mexico<\/a>, died at the end of May after a battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In addition, Chris Jaramillo, a law enforcement officer and lobbyist for the cockfighting industry, died on June 14. He was recovering from knee surgery when complications resulted in a massive heart attack.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been a good month,\u201d said Sid Goddard, chair of the county<\/st1:placetype> Republican Party<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barney Rawson, the father of state Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson and a mentor to a number of influential Las Cruces business and community leaders, was killed Sunday night in a head-on collision in Illinois. Barney and Joan Rawson were in Moline, Ill., to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary and visit friends when a man who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}