In 1965, Chilean-born Mariteresa Rivera-Rogers (b. 1943) and husband Enrique Rivera set out on their adventurous leap and moved to the United States. Sponsored by an aunt living in Las Vegas, their resident visas took only three months to process—a task that would take years in today’s world she explains. Their first home was on Convention Center Drive, though they and their four children would experience several different neighborhoods over the years.

Barbara Givens was born September 13, 1937 in California. She grew up in Reno, Nevada and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1952 with her family when she was 14 years old. Givens graduated from Las Vegas High School and enrolled in the first matriculated teacher's program at the Southern Regional Division of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV).

Sam Boyd and his family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1941 and he began working as a card dealer. He moved up to a pit boss and then to a shift boss and saved enough money to buy a small interest in the Sahara Hotel and Casino. He became general manager and partner at the Mint Hotel and Casino where he developed a number of marketing, gaming, and entertainment innovations.

Genevieve "Gene" Segerblom contributed in a multitude of ways to her home of more than fifty years--Boulder City, Nevada. She was a third-generation Nevadan and was born in Ruby Valley, Nevada in 1918. Gene and her future husband Clifford moved from Reno where they both had attended the University of Nevada, Reno to Boulder City in 1940. After they came back from Panama in 1948 where Clifford had a photography assignment, she ran a child care center and wrote freelance articles about the Nevada landscape with her husband providing the photographs.

Muriel Stevens (1925-2016) is a former newspaper columnist, author, chef, and radio and television host. Born December 22, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1954. Stevens is known for her radio and television shows, which focused on food, nutrition, and consumer issues. She hosted a one hour daily radio talk show for eight years before moving to television, where celebrity guests joined her on The Muriel Stevens Show to cook their favorite meals.