This community is situated about 5 miles south of Hobbs. There is some indication that it was formerly known as Roberts, but its first postmaster was James Henry Elijah Hughes who named it for his youngest daughter Nadine. The name was accepted by the Postal Service and still is associated with it today. Nadine had its own post office from 1909 to 1934.(1)

James Henry Elijah Hughes (1864-1924) was a store owner in the area that became Lea County and is thought to have moved to the location about 1909 with his wife, the former Jennie White (1869-1971). Nadine was the youngest of their five children and the only one to have been born in New Mexico. James died in 1924 in Ohio and Jennie survived him another forty-seven years and passed away in Roswell in 1971. Nadine died in a tragic house fire in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968.

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(1) Julyan, Robert, “The Place Names of New Mexico,” University of New Mexico Press, 1998.