Transcript of interview with Suzette Cox by Lance Cooper, March 1, 1979

UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox i An Interview with Suzette Cox An Oral History Conducted by Lance Cooper Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada, Las VegasUNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox ii © Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2017UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 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 Suzette Cox iv Abstract On March 1, 1979, Lance Cooper interviewed Suzette Cox (b. 1945 in San Diego, California) about her experiences living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cox talks briefly about her career history in working at the Las Vegas Sun, as a deputy sheriff, and eventually as a secretary at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She also talks about the various parts of Las Vegas in which she has lived since moving to the city in 1953. The two also discuss the Las Vegas Strip, gambling, recreational activities, atomic testing, the Mormon Fort, and how Las Vegas has changed over the years. UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 1 Okay, should I start, I guess, huh? Just start. Where were you born? In San Diego, California. What, uh— San Diego. Is there a suburb outside of that? I was born in San Diego. In the town? But I was raised in Lakeside, which is right outside of San Diego. How many are in your immediate family, your brothers and sisters? I have one brother. Okay. Where’d your ancestries come from, do you remember that? Well, I know that. My maternal grandfather came from England; in fact, he was born on a ship coming over from England. And my maternal grandmother was half Indian, and her family was from Georgia, and they migrated to Oklahoma where my grandmother was born. Indian where, was she? Cherokee Indian. She lived over here then, right? Yes. You met her over here? American Indian. Okay. UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 2 My father’s parents were of English ancestry, and they were all from Kansas. Okay. When did you guys move to Nevada—when did you and your family come? In January of 1953. That was Southern Nevada, Las Vegas here? Yes, directly to Las Vegas. Do you remember what reasons that your family moved here? We came here for work for my father, ‘cause the town was just really starting to build up at that time, and he’s in construction work, so there was a lot of work here. Okay. Were you educated in Southern Nevada? Primarily. I started in third grade here. From then on, I’ve gone through all my school years here. You attended college at UNLV then? I’ve taken classes here but not as a full-time student. Part-time, huh? Mm-hmm. So the only college you attended is UNLV here? I took a couple classes at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. I lived down there for a while after I got out of high school. Did you declare a major at all, or did you just go part-time? It was part-time, ‘cause I was working at the same time. Okay. Here’s a question (unintelligible): do you remember, at that time, what was the most popular major when you were going to college? Was there one—you know, like, when I was going, it’s physical ed for all the guys. Right, then it was teaching. UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 3 Teaching? Yes. Okay. That was biggie—they needed teachers. Male and female? Yes. Primarily female, I would say. Was there a lot of scholarships being given out at that time, do you remember at all? Or most people carried on jobs at the same time? Well, most of my friends worked and went to school. You know, it seemed to me that, at that time, I knew of more academic scholarships than athletic scholarships. I mean, a lot of the kids I went to high school with that the guys got athletic scholarships, but it didn’t seem to be such a big thing then as it is now. It was more academic-oriented. What was your occupation as you worked through college? Well, while I was still in high school, I worked at the Las Vegas Sun because that’s what—at that time, I had planned to go to school before I got out of high school. And I wanted to major in journalism, so I got—my journalism teacher at high school got me a job at the newspaper, and I worked there for two years, and then after I got out of high school I worked there full-time. Then I got another job offer to go to hotel and publicity and advertising, which was sort of related to that field, and I worked there for a while. And since then, I was—it’s been mostly secretarial positions. I was a deputy sheriff; I was commissioned when I worked at the sheriff’s department here. My duties there were primarily secretarial, but I did do some other things such as escort— On duty?UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 4 —female prisoners, and I went to court and took them if they had to leave the jail to go see a doctor or—mostly doctors or to the hospital. They always had to have a female deputy go along, so I did that. How long did you do this? I worked there for three-and-a-half years. I was commissioned for about a year-and-a-half of that time. You had to be twenty-one; I turned twenty-one while I worked there. (Unintelligible) Really. Your occupation now is? Secretary. Secretary? In the football department of the university. Okay. (Unintelligible) if you enjoy it. What addresses have you lived at in UNLV, or in Las Vegas? In Las Vegas? Well, when my family first came to Las Vegas, there was a terrible housing shortage, and we lived in North Las Vegas in some duplexes that were, at that time, reserved for military personnel, but there were friends of my parents that were fighter pilots out of Nellis Air Force Base, and they were able to get us into those duplex, like apartments, until we could find a house, and I think we were there for about, close to two years before we finally were able to find something more permanent. My father finally built a house. What changes have you found since you’ve been out that way at all? Oh— Lotta changes?UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 5 I don’t even recognize it. Have they leveled all the buildings? Those original apartments are still there, but they used to be out in the middle of nowhere, and we used to go across the dirt field to go to school—went to J.D. Smith, which is now a junior high school; at that time, it was an elementary school. We used to walk across the big empty field to get there, and now it’s just city blocks away. In fact, right above where we lived there was just a little, you know residential street, and now it’s a main thoroughfare. Where did you live after that? Well, then we moved—it’s sorta the center of town, that’s where my father bought the property and built the house—we had a large house there. And we lived there for the rest of the time I was in grade school, and then I went to high school from there for a year. There was a lot of empty lots then. It’s hard to explain—I don’t know if you know where, between Stewart and Washington, right off of about Nineteenth Street in that area, and then we moved out in the West Charleston area from there. Okay. And my parents still live in the same house since I was a sophomore in high school. Okay. Was there any important reasons for moving, like from Nellis on, or is it just, things got better looking? Well, things got better. First of all, like I said in the beginning, you just couldn’t find a house. Tom moved out near you, though, out that way, didn’t he? Oh yes, even—I remember when we first came here, Charleston Boulevard used to stop at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital, and then it was a dirt road from there on out—there was nothing out there. And my cousin moved here from California. She and her family—her husband UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 6 came out to work with my dad, and they lived in Charleston Heights; they’re right on Charleston Boulevard—I can’t remember the original name of the tract—really little houses. And that was the only thing in the whole area on West Charleston Boulevard, it was just—there was nothing else. And it used to go out—I remember when they paved it past the hospital, when they built those houses out there, and my parents, when they started building up in the western section of town, they really liked that a lot better, and that’s why they moved up there then and have stayed up there. In fact, when I got married and got a house, that’s the area I chose. When were you married, what year? In 1966. ’66? Mm-hmm. Okay, where, here in Las Vegas? Here in Las Vegas. And that gentleman that you married lived in Las Vegas here? Yes, he’s a native Nevadan from Alamo, Nevada, which is a county—in Lincoln County, the county just north of Clark County. His family was a pioneer in that area, and I met him here through one of his relatives that I went to school with. Okay. Are you active in any churches as of right now, or is there one you’re partial to? Well, when I was going to school, I was raised in and was very active in the Baptist Church. Okay. Do you remember any important events in Las Vegas, such as presidents coming through, any stars, like, as a young person, that you might’ve seen? I remember when President Kennedy was here, and he was running for the presidency, he stopped and gave a speech, and I saw him. When my brother and I were growing up here and we UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 7 were still in school, my parents used to take us to a lot of the hotel shows, and we’d see people like Red Skelton and Bobby Darin. Were they big on the Strip then, were they the big ones? Uh-huh, they were—I’m trying to think who else. It’s been a very long time ago. Sammy Davis Jr. and Martin & Lewis, they were together—Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis—they were still a team then when I saw them, and Frank Sinatra. It was a lot easier to get into shows then than it is now. I mean, I never realized there was a problem like we have, like if you want to get into a show now, you have to know somebody, or, you know, it’s hard to get reservations. Then, my folks used to just call up if there was somebody they wanted to see—it was very easy. What political party are you a member of? Democrat. Democrat? Let’s end this right here then. (Laughs) (Laughs) Okay, and your first president that you voted for? I think it was Lyndon Johnson, as far as I can remember. At that time, you had to be twenty-one to vote, and I think that was running in my first election. LBJ. Are you a member of any social clubs here in Las Vegas? No. Not at all? (Unintelligible) booster, huh? Only on my own. Is gambling—has it ever played an important part in your family life, or? Well, not directly, but anybody who’s lived here for any length of time, they had to play, and important part in their lives. I mean, just like my father’s work, he worked—I can remember him UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 8 working on the Stardust and the Riviera and majority of the large hotels, you know, when they were being built, if it hadn’t been for gambling, he wouldn’t have had work, and then I did work in the hotel for a little over a year. As far as going out and gambling, it’s not something that my family or I ever do. The only time we ever go out is when somebody comes to town, we have to take them out and show them around. But I hardly ever see a show anymore either. Mm-hmm. What are some important recreational things that you do in your family? We go biking, a lot of swimming, my kids play basketball, and that takes up a lot of time in the winter, and in the summer, they play baseball. Okay. Do you remember any important events that took place here in Las Vegas, like with the atomic blast or any testing? Yes. I remember seeing them. When we first came here in 1953, they were still doing above-ground testing, and I can remember my father getting my up early in the morning—the blast used to always be about daylight, and after the initial flash, then we could watch the cloud form. And I don’t re—I know I’ve seen at least two. From here? From, yes, when we lived in North Las Vegas and that. (Unintelligible) Nellis housing—it’s, at that time, I was only seven or eight years old, and it was exciting. Did they use to ignite ‘em closer to the top than they do now? They used to ignite ‘em on the top. Now they don’t ignite ‘em on top? Oh, no, now it’s all below-ground because they found out the fallout is dangerous. I mean, I think they always knew it; they just didn’t used their technology to be able to do it underground. UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 9 But at that time, it was all above-ground testing. And it’s just like in the movies, the mushroom cloud and everything. You could see it perfectly clear, and I can remember that. It didn’t mean anything at the time to me—you know it’s a mushroom cloud and they had a bomb go off and it was just something you live with and you didn’t think much about it. The thing about it now, it’s really scary, you know, to think that all that radiation was drifting all over. In fact, my husband’s father, they believe, died of exposure, and they have a suit going, and Washington, D.C., there’s several people that have filed suit. And Stewart Udall is the primary attorney representing these people. There’s close to 4- or 500 claims that have been filed for survivors of people who they believed died as a result of radiation fallout. Is it still in court now, or—? They’re just starting; they just submitted the claims. I think they’re waiting to see how the Baneberry trial is going to come out, this trial going here right now—two widows of two men who they feel died as a result of a blast—in the early 1970s was an underground test, but it leaked, and their husbands were very close to the area where the leakage occurred, and they brought suit against the government for damages as a result of the deaths. It’s still in court right now? It’s still—it’s been going on for weeks. Wow, probably years now. Could be, but I think all these other people that filed claims, and most of the people are from Utah, that have filed these claims, but there are a few in Nevada, which Joe’s father, you know, he and his mother have filed suit, each of them, as survivors. And there were a few—and he was very close. He was exposed several times. And he got cancer and, from the first symptoms to the time he died, it was, like, six months. UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 10 Okay. Have you noticed any changes just within the time you’ve lived here, like in climate, rainfall? It seems it rains more now. Than it did before? Than it used to. This year we had the big snow; that’s about the fourth one I even remember. I remember when we lived in North Las Vegas, it’s snowed like that once, and again in the house that my father built, there was snow—it was a two-story house, I remember looking out my window, it was just totally white from upstairs, all the way—and Sunrise Mountain was totally covered with snow, which is unusual, and—do you know which one that is? Mm-mm. The one towards the lake, this mountain range, not this one. And the snowfall hasn’t changed much, but once every eight or ten years, but a big one. It just seems like it rains more—there’s more humidity. I guess that comes from there being a lot more people. I can remember, when I went to high school here—this came up the other day and it’s why I was thinking about it—somebody asked me if I knew where a certain street was in town, and I’ve never heard of it—well, when I was going to high school, we knew all the streets in town, ‘cause there weren’t that many, and that’s only been fifteen years ago—it’s changed a lot, really a lot. The big hotel on the Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, which has been gone for years—burned down, you know. I never heard of it. What was one of the—like, the Dunes and the Sands, were those some of the newer ones when you—? I’m trying to think what was here. I remember— What are some of the older ones on the Strip?UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 11 The Sahara Hotel was called the Club Bingo; it was just a little, tiny, dinky square building. Let’s see, I remember when the Riviera and the Stardust was built. The Tropicana and the Flamingo have been here forever, especially the Flamingo—that was here for a long time. Most of the other ones are all new. I can’t remember the Sands, if it was here or not. I think it was or had just been built or something, but everything’s changed, everything’s gotten better. How about people in general? This university wasn’t here. (Unintelligible) just the people that you’ve met around here? Have they changed much, because, growing, I know that, just to drive in traffic, people are rude, you know? Was it like that, usually, before? No, because more people knew—it was like a small town then. You could never go anywhere where you didn’t run into somebody you knew. And I’ve lived here long enough where I still run into people, but not like you used to. You know, just—of course, there’s more places to go now, but there’s a lot more tourists and a lot more people from out of town moving here. I don’t know what they’re doing, but they just keep coming. The town always changes when it gets bigger; it’s not as much fun. Is there a certain group of people or anything that’s become more dominant? Like, in Fresno, things that become more dominant to us are, like, the Elks Club; that’s the going thing. Is there something, like, in Las Vegas? I think that used to be more, and it’s phasing out. Like, the Elks Club—Helldorado, which is a big celebration every year, that used to be the biggest thing in the whole year. I mean, school would close down, everybody would be in the parades, go to the rodeos, the carnival—it was just, you looked forward to it all year long. And the whole town got behind it; you know, it was UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 12 like something almost everybody in town went to, because that was the big—and it was still a small town. Now, it’s more commercialized. I don’t know if my kids have seen more than one or two parades, and when I was growing up here, we never missed one. There was always three parades. Has anything become more dominant, though, here in Vegas? Tourism became everything—everybody’s out to please the tourist, like the smile campaigns. Commercials, I see, more commercials. Yes. How about— Politics is—of course, I guess that’s always been there. And it’s gotten a lot bigger. I don’t know, it seemed—I know that the Elks Club and the Masons and all those still go on, but you just don’t hear as much about ‘em as you used to, I guess. Do you remember any stories that were told to you from your parents or from, like, anything about their ranch? Has anyone ever told about the ranch, the Stewart Ranch or the Mormon settlement up there? That’s a basic question (unintelligible). I was wondering if you’d heard anything. The Stewart Ranch—well, where Tule Springs is now—that was another ranch at one time. And, like I said before, my husband’s family has been here. His mother and aunts and uncles were all born in this area, in Southern Nevada. And so, I know one of their relatives, and I think it’s one of his cousin’s grandparents or something, that Tule Springs, west Tule Springs now, or Floyd Lamb State Park, used to be their ranch, you know, the used to live out there. And at Spring Mountain Ranch, which is now a state park—we lived there for a while, my husband and I. After we got married, it was owned—we moved out there right after Howard Hughes bought it from UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 13 Vera Krupp; she had it—I don’t remember how long she had it—for years and years. In fact, we lived here when her diamond was stolen from the ranch, the Krupp diamond, which was a very famous robbery. Did they ever find out who did it? They finally caught them in California or somewhere. I mean, I was very young then, but I remember that. It was such a big deal. Does your husband’s parents remember the Mormon Fort settlement? Oh, I’m sure they do. What’s their names? My husband’s mother’s maiden name is Lamb. Just in case, you know, for the (unintelligible). Oh yeah, the Lambs are quite a prominent family in Southern Nevada. Do you know where they live or do you have their address? There’s a lot of ‘em. Lot of ‘em? Oh yeah. So more of the old ones remember the Mormon Fort? Oh, I’m sure they would. Or the Stewart, or they call it the Stewart Ranch. Mm-hmm, well the Stewarts and the Lambs are related. So there’s still Stewarts here in town? Oh, hundreds of Stewarts here in town. Stewarts and Leavitts and Lambs. I know about the Leavitts. UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 14 They’re all very old Mormon families that have been here forever and ever. Stewarts—a lotta Stewarts are from Alamo, too; that’s how they’re related. I think Grandma Lamb was a Stewart, and that’s how the relationship comes in. So, but back to Spring Mountain Ranch, when we lived up there, there was an old Indian that lived up there and worked for Howard Hughes at the time, or for his corporation; his name was Buster, and right now I cannot think of his last name—Wilson. His family owned the ranch at one time, and he had certain kind of rights that were in the deed. Buster’s family sold it to Vera Krupp, and then Krupp sold it to Hughes. And Buster used to tell us stories about when their first, you know, when he was little and they lived up at the ranch. Is he still living? No, he died a few years ago. He was an artist. He used to paint pictures; in fact, after—we used to make fun of him, and then after he died, they had a big showing of his pictures, and they were worth—they started selling and they were worth a lot of money. And I think about one or two that I threw away and I wish I would’ve kept. But up at the ranch, there’s an Indian burial ground, and there used to be a Pony Express station in the old Indian house. Do you remember any history of illnesses in your family, something that was out of the ordinary, maybe from your grandparents telling you or? Of illnesses? Mm-hmm. I remember my grandmother—she was half Indian, which at that time, the early 1900s, was almost as bad as being an outcast. So, she went to some sort of teacher school that they had and became a teacher and went to New Mexico near Gallup to teach school and Indian school—that’s when they had, the Indians, they used to send them away to boarding school, the kids, on UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 15 the reservation. And she married—her first husband was a full-blooded Indian, and she had two kids, and the youngest was still a baby and she got tuberculosis. It was much more common and much more serious than it is now. And they sent her to a home in Texas, and I don’t know if it had a lotta superstition with it, you know, it was—it’s like something that the family never wanted to talk about very much. When they sent her away, they didn’t think she going to live because of the tuberculosis, and it was harder to cure then, apparently. Her husband took the kids and ran away with them, my aunt and uncle, and she didn’t see them for twenty years. But she obviously recovered and— From tuberulo— Mm-hmm. And remarried and had my mother from her second husband. But her first husband, because she had tuberculosis and because it was such a scary thing then, when they sent her away to this—it was like a convalescent-type place just for TB patients—he took the kids and ran away so they wouldn’t be around her in case she should come back, and somehow, they finally all get back together, but her daughter, who was the youngster at the time, just a baby, was already married when she saw her again, from the time she was just a few months old. It’s just amazing to me, that story. And he had moved—he was from California, from the San Diego area. And I think it’s called Mission Indian; he was a full-blood Mission Indian, and he had taken them back down towards San Diego, and then they lived in Yellowstone for a long time, and at that time, my aunts told me stories that the Indians could live there and hunt and fish all year around. And I think he worked in some sort of power plant up there. And he was a very educated man; he had gone to Carlisle University back east, and he was also a teacher. That’s how he met my grandmother. And my aunt and uncle were sent away to Indian boarding school. So you’re part Indian yourself then, right? UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 16 Mm-hmm, yes. I see. One-quarter, one-eighth, isn’t it? I’m an eighth. Eighth? Mm-hmm. I wonder if you apply for any grant money— A lot of my relatives have, but— How about UNLV’s future? Does it look—is it growing real fast? Have you caught any of the, you know, on paper sometimes, tell how fast it’s growing? It’s growing really fast. It’s sort of (unintelligible). You were here when it started, weren’t you, or not working here, but? Nor working here—I remember, I remember— [Recording cuts out, tape ends] Go ahead (unintelligible). The library, the university library, was in a little corner room in the bottom of Grant Hall. When I was in high school, we used to come out here, and it was a big deal to come out and use the university library. Do you remember where the popular place was to go to college at that time? Arizona. Arizona? Reno or Arizona. Most of my friends went to Arizona—few in California, but especially Flagstaff, that was a biggie. Oh, Northern? UNLV University Libraries Suzette Cox 17 Tucson, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. It was known by another name then, but I don’t remember what it was. It wasn’t Northern Arizona; I remember when they changed it. (Unintelligible) Okay. That’s about it. Thanks (unintelligible). Okay, we’ll go ahead and (unintelligible). [Recording ends]