Many Valley cities pride themselves on being home to a famous industry, resident or event. But one local town goes even further, laying claim to its own lifestyle. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the Clovis “Way of Life,” and the person who coined the phrase.
Clovis was founded in 1891 and became a city in 1912. It started out as a lumber town on the railroad northeast of Fresno. For years it remained a small hamlet, known best for its rodeo, held every April since 1914. But once Fresno State moved to its new campus just west of the city, Clovis began to grow.
The city was home to 14,000 people in 1970. That’s when pharmacy owner Lilly Dorfmeier Skinner came up with the slogan during a conversation with a friend. She was the president of a group that aimed to spruce up downtown Clovis by adding old west-style motifs to local buildings. She even led a protest on horseback when the design for the city’s new civic center wasn’t “western” enough. Dorfmeier Skinner cited the city’s small town-feel, western heritage, and the area’s horse farms and ranches as key to the lifestyle.
By the mid 1970s, the slogan was being used in real estate ads and newspaper articles. It was even added to the town’s welcome sign, proclaiming “Clovis is a Western Way of Life” – complete in an old west-style font. The town leaned in to the city's rodeo and western heritage, with new shopping centers built with a rustic flair, and vintage style streetlights added to "Old Town."
But in 1977, Dorfmeier Skinner told the Fresno Bee that the Clovis “way of life” was dying. She said there was too much growth, with too many new subdivisions and shopping centers. Clovis was already changing. Fueled by a growing school district, plenty of land, and “white flight” from Fresno, the town’s population growth accelerated. But the city hasn't looked back. Today around 130,000 people call Clovis home, yet the city leaders till champion the “Way of Life” slogan, over 50 years later.
