Gwendolyn K. Walker was born August 11, 1956 in Houston, Texas. She arrived in North Las Vegas, Nevada in 1962 as a five-year-old with her parents, two brothers, and her cousins. The Walker family at first moved to a rented house on D Street, and she attended Kit Carson Elementary School for first grade. Her mother enrolled in nursing school, so she sent Walker back to Delhi, Louisiana, to be raised by her grandmother. In Delhi, she picked cotton with her aunt while she was in the second grade.
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Dorothy Pitzer was born September 9, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and was raised in small Illinois towns. She met her future husband, Doug, when they went to rival high schools. She began nurses training in Dixon, Illinois, and immediately after her 1950 graduation, Pitzer and Doug married. The couple moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in July 1954, when Doug was transferred to Nellis Air Force Base. Pitzer worked as a nurse at Las Vegas Hospital and Clinic 1954-1957 and later worked for a private obstetrics practice.
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Linda Falba McSweeney was born January 3, 1945 in Miami, Florida. Her family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1950 and lived in the Huntridge area of town. She and her two siblings attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School, St. Anne’s School, and Bishop Gorman High School. They marched in the city’s Helldorado Parades, and she was a Bishop Gorman High School cheerleader. McSweeney was a retired speech pathologist.
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Patricia Ann Ross was born November 16, 1943 and arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada as an infant with her parents and older brothers in 1944. She was raised in the Huntridge area, where she and her brothers attended John S. Park Elementary School and Las Vegas High School. Ross was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from her childhood. She married her high school sweetheart, and became a young mother to two children.
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Edward Butera was born April 08, 1949 in San Jose, California. He would spend hours constructing home models from the time he was a five-year-old boy. Butera also loved math and music—specifically the clarinet. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at San Jose State University, he was hired by Ralph Joeckel as a consulting engineer for Trane, a heating and air conditioning company
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Melody Hope Stein was born March 26, 1948 in Oceanside, Long Island, New York. She got her education from SUNY Binghamton, Harpur College, and Hofstra University. She taught art education for 46 years, in New York before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1996. She served for fourteen years as the arts director and art teacher at the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Educational Campus (formerly Milton I Schwartz Hebrew Academy) in Summerlin, Nevada.
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Anna Peltier was born September 12, 1978 and grew up in Escanaba, Michigan, on the Upper Peninsula. She studied music performance at Michigan State University, but after discovering her love of landscape architecture, she changed majors and earned her degree in landscape architecture. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007 and first worked for JW Zunino Landscape Architects. While with Zunino, Peltier did design work for Lorenzi Park, the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum, and designed the award-winning Cactus Avenue Interchange.
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Marc Ratner was born July 25, 1944 in Phoenix, Arizona. His family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he was in the seventh grade in 1957. The Ratner family belonged to Temple Beth Sholom. Ratner is a graduate of Las Vegas High School and Nevada Southern (now UNLV.) Ratner worked for decades at officiating and regulating sports events, especially boxing, mixed martial arts, and football. He served as official in three collegiate bowl games: the 2003 Aloha Bowl, 2000 Independence Bowl and 2006 Cotton Bowl.
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Lestor Burgwardt was born May 24, 1926 in Hamburg, New York. He moved to Henderson, Nevada in 1954 to work as a biology teacher.
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