Military Pilot Became Star in State Legislature

Mayfield safeguarded his integrity, friends and family said, and was always willing to take the hard road if he deemed it necessary.

Mayfield, a 1942 graduate of Las Cruces Union High School, attended the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell but wanted to enlist after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. When the Army Air Corps circulated advertisements seeking would-be pilots for the war effort, Mayfield and several other cadets signed up, despite the opposition of the school superintendent.

As the pilot of a B-24 bomber based in southern Italy, Mayfield ended up flying more than three dozen missions over Germany. His son, Robert Mayfield, said his father was most proud of never having lost a crew member during those harrowing missions.

From 1945 to 1953, Bobby Mayfield flew B-29 bombers and their successor B-50s as part of the 97th Bombardment Wing, based at what was then called Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso. Mayfield was part of an elite group of pilots who flew bombers carrying atomic bombs for the Strategic Air Command directed by Gen. Curtis LeMay.

In 1951, Bobby Mayfield for a short while held the record for flying a plane the longest distance without in-flight refueling after piloting a B-50 from England to El Paso, his son said.

The son of farmers from Mississippi, Mayfield resigned his Air Force commission in 1953 and returned to Las Cruces to be with his family and to farm. Friends and his son said that the elder Mayfield had been disturbed by his participation in preparations for a one-way mission, subsequently aborted, that was to send dozens of long-range bombers armed with atomic weapons over the Soviet Union and China during the Korean War.

Resuming an education halted by World War II, Bobby Mayfield enrolled at New Mexico State University under the GI bill and obtained a bachelor’s degree, and later a master’s degree, in economics.

He oversaw farming operations in the Mesilla Valley and ranching in northern New Mexico when local leaders urged him to seek state office. Mayfield won election to a House seat in 1960 and served four terms through 1968. During that time, he chaired the Taxation and Revenue Committee and the joint Legislative Finance Committee.

According to newspaper articles from that time, Mayfield raised concerns about the influence of money in politics. One of his proudest accomplishments was pushing for the establishment of a state medical school at the University of New Mexico.

In 1968, Mayfield ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor. A newspaper article said of him: “He’s got enough going for him to make a public relations man or a political kingmaker do somersaults of joy at the thought of trying to sell this guy to the public. Mayfield is big, handsome, a good speaker, and projects well personally, photographically and on television.”

After the failed campaign, Mayfield steered his life in a new direction – he and his wife, Mary Ann, sold one of their Las Cruces farms and moved to Albuquerque where, at the age of 45, he entered law school at University of New Mexico.

Mayfield obtained his law degree in 1972 and two years later, he again sought the Democratic nomination for governor, losing to Jerry Apodaca. (The governorship became a four-year term as of 1970.)

While he maintained contact with friends in government and offered advice to political novices, Mayfield did not seek office again. Instead, he headed back to Las Cruces, where he had deep roots and many contacts, to build a successful law practice. He also got involved in other business ventures, such as real estate development, jewelry manufacturing and commercial leasing.

In one of his biggest legal cases in the early ’90s, he represented former astronaut Frank Borman, the commander of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 and later head of Eastern Airlines, who had become an auto dealer in Las Cruces. Borman was the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit in which dealers sued Honda for soliciting bribes for favorable treatment and cars to sell. Honda settled for nearly $400 million.

In a more recent high-profile case, Mayfield represented an Albuquerque woman whose HMO denied her coverage for a bone marrow transplant. Her civil suit exposed a pay-to-play scheme in which state Insurance Division officials sought contributions to charities from regulated insurance companies in exchange for favorable treatment.

Borman and Mayfield, both avid pilots, became close friends and in 1998, Borman arranged for a restored vintage B-24 to be flown to New Mexico so Mayfield could get take a seat in the cockpit again. Mayfield, then in his 70s, flew the plane from Carlsbad to Las Cruces.

Mayfield is survived by his wife of 66 years, Mary Ann, and three children. A memorial service was held Dec. 4 at the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.
MAYFIELDMilitary Pilot Became Star in State Legislature

Bobby Mayfield
— This article appeared on page C4 of the Albuquerque Journal