Transcript of interview with Pauleen Foutz by Don Scott Kaye, February 25, 1980

UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz i An Interview with Pauleen Foutz An Oral History Conducted by Don Scott Kaye Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las Vegas UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017 UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz iii The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division. The OHRC conducts oral interviews with individuals who are selected for their ability to provide first-hand observations on a variety of historical topics in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. The OHRC is also home to legacy oral history interviews conducted prior to its establishment including many conducted by UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske and his students. This legacy interview transcript received minimal editing, such as the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader's understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. The interviewee/narrator was not involved in the editing process. UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz iv Abstract On February 25, 1980, Don Scott Kaye interviewed genealogist Pauleen Foutz (born November 26, 1906 in Provo, Utah) at her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Foutz relocated to Nevada with her husband, who was a dentist, and raised her children in Las Vegas. Her children attended the Fifth Street School and later Las Vegas High School. She mentions that while her children attended middle school and high school in Las Vegas there was no problem with segregation. She also describes how Strip orchestras would provide entertainment for the children in the Las Vegas community by playing for their dances, such as junior proms and senior hops. During the interview, Mrs. Foutz discusses the history of Southern Nevada, social and religious activities in Las Vegas, her interests, extracurricular activities for local youth, and home and family life. While living in Las Vegas, professions she has held include schoolteacher, businessperson, and genealogist. She was involved with the Bicentennial celebrations in Las Vegas in 1967 and was very involved with the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, genealogical library in Las Vegas. At the time this interview was conducted, Mrs. Foutz was the president of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America for Nevada. UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 1 This is an oral interview for Nevada History. The informant is Pauleen Foutz. The date is February 25th, 1980. The time is 3:30 PM. The interview is being held at Pauleen Foutz’s home located at 4476 Sunnydunes Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada. The collector is Don Scott Kaye of 4206 Ridgecrest Drive, Las Vegas, Nevada. Mrs. Foutz are you a native of Southern Nevada? No. I was born at Provo, Utah. Do you have a large family? I have four children. I have a son who is a practicing dentist here in Las Vegas, Dr. Laurence Foutz. I have a daughter living here, Elvadean Anderson, and she is doing quite a bit in the art field, as a—making, as a sculptress, and she does these little whimsical critters, as she calls them, and they’re each is an original. Oh. She doesn’t duplicate any. She just works from scratch. Oh, I see. The other daughter is living in Munich, Germany, with her family. She has five children—three are living. The artist daughter has two children; they’re both at college right now. And the other daughter is single, Alicia, and she lives here at home with me. And my son is the father of ten children. One, the oldest is now serving for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on a mission in Japan. Well, that’s wonderful. What is your ethnic ancestry, Mrs. Foutz? It’s, I guess you’d call it Yankee. (Laughs) UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 2 And English. (Laughs) I go back to several revolutionary ancestors and founders and we do have English. They must have been pretty active in the formation of the country. They came early. They were pretty busy. How ‘bout your family history here in Southern Nevada? Were there any of the ancestors located here before you? No. My husband was a dentist and he took the board in Nevada about the time the Boulder Dam was being constructed. But he didn’t move or locate here until a little later. During the Depression, he was affiliated with his two brothers and father in their dental office in Ogden, and he decided to go out on the road. So he took a military type chair unit and equipment and such in the trunk of the car, and he would travel to Southern Nevada towns, where there wasn’t a dentist available. And he came into Nevada, there was Beatty, and Overton, Owyhee, Pioche, and other little towns in Nevada. And he did this for a few years and then he decided he would like to establish himself in Pioche. So in 1936, he did. And that is when I moved to Nevada with him, and we had one child, the infant son. We stayed there until August of 1940, when we decided to move to Las Vegas. We rented a home on the 3- in the 300 Block, on South Third, just south of Mayor Cragin’s residence. And at this time we had three children, the son and the two older daughters. He rented office space from the Von Tobel family, on the floor above the Western Union office, 107 Fremont. He stayed there for a long time and then when Von Tobel sold to the company that built a casino, he rented again from Mr. Von Tobel, at 1914—no, it was 1514 East Charleston. Hm. I’ll bet that you’ve seen quite a change in this city, since those times. UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 3 When we first came, there weren’t any resort hotels. The El Rancho was built soon after we came. Oh. No resort hotels. That would be hard to imagine. It is hard, isn’t it? Yes. But as I said, we lived on Third Street there until the spring of 1941 and then we bought the Brian L. Bunker home at 421 South Sixth. And it was our home then for thirty-seven years plus. Ooh. It was in August of 1978 that we sold that home and it is now the artist’s co-op. And they have their gallery there and they teach art classes. We moved then out here to 4476 Sunnydunes Drive. Hm. Yes, I’ve seen the artist’s co-op advertised, that’s great. Mrs. Foutz what was your educational background? ‘Course I graduated from high school and Heber, Utah, and then went to the BYU for two years, which was all we had to do then in order to teach. And then, I taught for about seven years. But, in the meantime I went back to school, two, or three summers. And also did some extra correspondence work. Then I did later graduate from BYU after I was married and children were partially grown. Then through all those years, I was taking different courses of various sorts. And genealogy was always a great interest to me. And I took every course that I could get from the BYU, on genealogy. Mm-hm. Then after we established the library, which I’ll talk about later, they had a special seminar at the Brigham Young University every summer for one week. And I attended about ten of those. The goals I had— UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 4 Yes. Some of your motivational goals and your aspirations? To be a good teacher was one basic goal. That’s a good goal. And of course, being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I was always very active in the various organizations. There was never a time I didn’t hold some position in one of the organizations. Some of these were leadership and some were teaching. Mm-hm. And that was a great joy and service. Yes. What were some of your specific callings or activities in the church? I served as a counselor in the Relief Society. I’ve served as a state junior Sunday school coordinator and ward coordinator. I’ve served as organist on different ward levels. And of course I was always busy in the genealogy program at the church and taught many, many classes through the years, in genealogy work. Now in the fifties, I began getting very active in some of the community programs, and I joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the American Colonists, the Daughters of the Founders and Patriots, the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, the Huguenot Society of Utah, Dames of the Seventeenth Century, and in those organizations I found a great satisfaction in the community programs that were fostered. And we did do a lot with naturalization court programs, through the years. We also sponsored school contests and it was my privilege to serve a state region of the DAR. And at the present time I’m Western History—or Western Vision Chairman of the American History contest, for the DAR. Gee, that’s fantastic. At one time, I was state region of DAC, and I did serve as national historian for three years, for the DAC. During that period we had a project of having members tell ancestor stories and record UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 5 them. And those are on file at the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Colonists in Washington D.C. The Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America is a unique organization. In order to be a member you either go through your father’s surname back to the revolution, to an ancestor that served in the revolution and on that, on that same surname to a founder of the American, in the American colonies. The only way that you can belong to that is if your mother’s surname is used or your fathers. So, it’s a very limiting organization in some respects. The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers through the years have been active here very much in the preservation of the Old Fort. And I did serve on the county, in the county presidency, at one time. An organization affiliated with the Daughters of the American Revolution is the Children of the American Revolution. And for many years I served there and during that service we organized a state organization and many of the children were able to go back to Washington to the conventions. They helped with patriotic exhibits in schools, in the libraries, and some of the window displays, were all on a patriotic theme. They participated in parades, they obtained governors proclamations for American history month, constitution week, and different special patriotic occasions. Oh, I did serve as national historian for CAR and we sponsored a nationwide contest in oratory, with a specific subject, usually on historic or patriotic theme. Ooh. That’s fantastic. What are some of your special skills and interests? Well, I’ve always sowed and love to sew. And of course I’ve been interested in many, many things. All kinds of collecting actually. Uh-huh. We used to go camping quite a lot in Old Mexico and of course, shell collecting was my hobby, while my husband fished and the children. Oh. UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 6 But— There used to be a lot of collecting you could do in Southern Nevada or certainly I know in Northern Nevada, historical collecting. But I guess it’s become less and less because so many people have done it. Well, it was always interesting to get out in the desert and we always found a few things that we were interested in and we used to do quite a bit of that—wander around in the old areas where there’d been establishments and homes and such. Mm-hm. But I became quite interested in that, affiliated with the DAR women. Because many of them from upstate would go out and dig for bottles. And then many of them would search the cemeteries for inscriptions that they could copy, and that was always very interesting. And I think it wedded my interest in different sorts of collecting. I’m sure it would. And we used to try to find bottles. Sometimes we were lucky and sometimes we weren’t (Laughs) so the desert has its attractions, certainly. It sure does. I’m sure that as you did research in the areas of your Daughters of American Revolution and some of the other organizations, you became more and more interested in the history of Southern Nevada and of the country, too. There was one thing that really helped my interest in Nevada and that was when I was state chairman for the DAR of the good citizens committee. And that was a program sponsored by the DAR with the support of the principals of the schools, to choose a very outstanding senior girl, to represent that school as the DAR Good Citizen. And as chairman of that committee it was my duty to write to all of the superintendents and the principals throughout the state. And through UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 7 that activity I learned about all of the high schools in the state. And I’ve never lost the interest that I gained at that time in the counties and the different schools. It was a very fascinating experience. Before that, my attention was more or less just in Lincoln County and Clark County, so I felt that that was a very educational thing, as to serve in that one committee. Is Pioche in Lincoln County? Yes. Pioche is in Lincoln County. And there were things up there that were very fascinating, too, because it is a historic place. And I felt quite close to a lot of the historic things that we were able to learn while we were there. And of course the courthouse, everybody knows about that. And it was still being used when we lived there. Mm-hm. I understand that you were involved in the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, genealogical library in Las Vegas. Now that will take us back quite a way. I wanted to first touch on my interest in genealogy. Okay. Fine. Oh. As a child my father used to like to tell us stories about his grandparents and his great-grandparents. And it seemed like it caught my imagination and when I went to the Brigham Young University I did take a class in 1927. And then as the years went on every time there was a class offered by correspondence or otherwise, I took it. I finally had a minor in the subject, minor, so many quarter hours. Oh great. But it was in March of 1966 that Rulan A. Earl was president of the LDS East Stake, applied to the genealogy society in Salt Lake City, for permission to establish a branch library in Las Vegas. Now for several years there had been groups hoping that such a thing could happen. But the genealogical library didn’t start the branch library program until just a few years previous to UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 8 this 1966 time. There was a time when my husband and Samuel F. Davis and others were working in the LDS church genealogy program. And they started a library that they housed in the LDS chapel at 509 South Ninth Street—at 500 South Ninth Street. And this continued for some time. Then there was a town group that organized and called themselves, The Family Researchers Club, and they asked if they could transfer this collection of books that the church housed over to the city library so that they would be available to the public as reference books, but not as circulating books. It was a dream of many in Las Vegas to have a good genealogy library, eventually. President Earl’s application was granted and the area of all of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, Kingman, and the Moapa and Virgin Valleys, were included in this regional library. It was started in the beginning by calling several staff members to be trained and Mrs. Marjorie Cummings was asked to serve as head librarian. And I was called as assistant to her. That summer of 1966, we spent getting ready to official open to the public in September. We had a—during that summer we acquired several hundred books. And we were able to get six (unintelligible) film readers and a copy of the film card catalogue from Salt Lake City, genealogical library. And then, of course the key to the value of the establishment of a branch library is the privilege of being able to rent film from the main library in Salt Lake. So, by September we were ready to begin this film rental system. First, we were located over behind the (Unintelligible) center in that small building. At that time, that building belonged to the church. But in 1967, in May, the church welfare building, at 509 South Ninth, was vacated, and it was renovated and remodeled, etcetera, for the library, and we moved there. At the present time, the library has over 5000 books and about 3000 rolls of film, available at all times to those who want to do research. There are ten microfilm readers there are microfiche readers, etcetera. The library is open to the public; some have thought because it was an LDS UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 9 library that it was closed to those who did not belong to the church. But it is open to anyone who wishes to do research there. All staff workers are volunteers. No one is paid. And all feel their service is richly rewarding. There is a library board presided over by the LDS church regional representative of the area, and a representative from each of the LDS stake organizations served by the library, serves on this board. And all funds for the library maintenance, acquisitions of books and film, are donated. The library has the California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, did I mention Colorado? No. I don’t think you did. Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, 1900 film, there on the premise, and it’s open for those who would like to search those. We have been closely associated with the public library system in Las Vegas and support each other in any genealogical research. Back when that library was given to the city library, the time came when the city library personnel wanted us to take that collection back to the genealogical library. And so, those books were moved over on an indefinite loan basis. So that the main source of any genealogical material in Las Vegas is really in the church genealogical library. The county library, city library, and others, whenever they receive a donation of a genealogical type book, they usually turn it over to our library, and we do appreciate this. Most people feel that they will get whatever is available by coming to our library. Now the 1900 census, of course, can be rented from the national archives branch in California. And we order film that way. Also, the county library and all of the affiliated libraries. Mrs. Foutz, what are some of the changes you’ve seen in the schools? In the school system in Clark County? Well, I think I’ll trace that through with my own children. When we first moved here, the boy was ready for kindergarten. And of course, we lived right close to the Fifth Street School. And as UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 10 the other children became of age, they went to kindergarten and all four of them went through at the Fifth Street School, through the eighth grade. And then, of course, they all went to the Las Vegas High School, which was only two or three, two-and-a-half blocks away. That was the only high school at that time wasn’t it? The only high school. And never at any time did they have to be taken to school. (Laughs) Because of the convenience, we had of living so close to each school. They never had that opportunity of going to another high school or another grade school. And during those early years, since every child went to the Fifth Street School, there was no problem with segregation. The little children of different races all mixed there and there was never any problem. That’s really something. My children never made a comment about their classmates, just being one thing or another. (Laughs) Actually, in many ways the city was ahead of its time then. Probably was. So many things have occurred since that were just not considered or even thought of at such a time. So that all four of the children did receive their elementary and high school education in those two schools. They went on later to other schools. Some went to, out-of-state. Were there any changes in the activities of the students over the years that you’ve seen? Did they do different things at that time, extracurricular activities, were they different from what they are now? Was there a lot for the youth to do in Las Vegas? They had a special thing going when they had their junior proms and their senior hops. Quite often they would be able to get one of the Strip orchestras to play for their dance. And nearly all of the children felt that they had to go out on the Strip, of course. And they could go for the price of fruit punch. UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 11 Why, times have really changed. Very definitely. It was good clean entertainment that they were able to go to, and as parents we thought that it was a very nice thing that they could do that. Sure. It seems that the Strip musicians and those people involved in a lot of the resorts are very civically minded. I’m sure you saw that in schools. It’s evident by what they did in the form of dances and some of the other things you’ve mentioned. Yes. We always felt that the hotels were backing the community. And the Helldorado parades were so special during those years, the beauty parade. I’ll bet. Because of what the hotel entries were. They still have that, too, don’t they, every year? They still have the parades. But they’re hot quite like they were then. Not quite as big, huh? That’s right. Have you received any awards or honors? Back in 1961, I was serving as senior national vice president of the western region, for the CAR. And we organized the western states and held the first Western Regional Meeting. The National Society had been anxious for us to do this for several years, but this year we did hold the first Western Regional Meeting. And it was at Reno. Of course, the mayor of Reno gave me the key to the city. Which I have cherished. And then, the following year, the Sons of the American Revolution of California State, gave me the Medal of Appreciation. Another award, was to receive the same type of medal from the Southern Nevada Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. And these are cherished. The, some of the elections to office have been really a great UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 12 reward to me. And through the years there have been several of these national offices that I’ve been able to hold. At the present time I am president of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America for Nevada. Does that take a lot of your time? Do you meet on a weekly basis, that organization? No. We don’t meet that often. For the Daughters of Founders and Patriots we only meet about once a year. But we do give a medal to the ROTC, Outstanding Cadet, in Reno each year. Oh great! And that has carried on throughout the United States in the colleges that have ROTC programs. Were you involved in the Bicentennial celebrations here in Las Vegas in 1967? Well, my involvement was more on the, from the state level. I was involved in the county, and participated with them in many, on many occasions. But it was in April of 1970 that I received a letter from the state archivist, Jay Fred Gale, asking me if I would be a member of the Nevada Commission. I accepted this. And it was recent or shortly after that, that Florence Lee Jones, Kalen and I, went up to our first meeting, which was held in the Capitol complex. Jay Fred, or Fred Gale, the state archivist was the chairman. We met with a great deal of hope and enthusiasm, and a dedicated feeling of a wonderful opportunity to serve patriotically in this great occasion. We some of us were on as members the full time. It was dissolved in July of 1977, and there were several of us who served that complete time. Senator Pat McCarran’s daughter, Mary Margaret, was one of those members, and it was a great opportunity to get to know her and become very close friends. John Kalen of Southern Nevada, was of course, the vice chairman for several of those years. One thing we did on the Bicentennial Commission was grant many, many funds for special projects throughout the state. And it was always a great satisfaction to be able to do that, and see where—some of those projects were of vital importance in the communities; UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 13 in fact, all of them were. The library, the genealogy library decided to have a project of indexing the 1870 U.S. Census of Nevada. And for about ten years, they were working very, very busily on extracting every bit of information from the original microfilms. And a team of two workers would do this and then compare their notes, entry-by-entry. And if there was an error, they would go back to the original and discover why there was a discrepancy. Then all these entries were typed on three-by-five cards. And when completed, these cards were arranged alphabetically, and then microfilmed. The project didn’t get finished for the Bicentennial. But this past year, it was finished. And it was just the other day that we sent a copy of this filmed index to the state library. It turned out to be five rolls of 16mm of film. The University of Las Vegas had put their order in for a copy of this index. The Bicentennial Commission has a great deal of satisfaction, I think, in knowing, as members, as in knowing that we did our very best to follow the mandate of the National Commission. And in every way we could, we functioned to the best of our ability. There were disappointments, there were, as always, some political problems. But the national organization endorsed our efforts in every way and we are very proud of that. Looking back over the years, Mrs. Foutz, what do you feel were the key points in your life? Well, I think moving to Las Vegas was a key point. Because I’ve been afforded so many opportunities that have been richly rewarding, especially activity in the community and in the church. And this service that I’m engaged in now at the library, I was made head librarian in in May of 1967, and I’ve served as that since at the genealogy library. That is the most rewarding thing. We meet so many people who are really anxious to find out something about their background and who the people are that are in their ancestral heritage. And it’s just a thrill to see the reaction of so many of these people when they find a vita; bit of information. It isn’t unusual UNLV University Libraries Pauleen Foutz 14 at all for someone to really cry out, there at the library, at one of the microfilms or when they have discovered something in a book. And so, it’s a real joy to share that with others. I think the satisfaction of a good home and family is certainly a key point in anyone’s life. And my family is extremely important to me. There’s great satisfaction in seeing them established and doing well in life. And of course, participation and friendship, with others in community activity and in all service projects is certainly a highlight in my life, I think. Well, thank you very much for your assistance in this project, in the interest of the history of Southern Nevada. (Tape ends)