Nevada Lieutenant Governor Clifford "Cliff" Jones was born in Long Lane, Missouri in 1912. While he was attending the University of Missouri in 1931, his family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. During summer breaks from college Jones worked alongside his brother, Herbert, on the construction of the Boulder (Hoover) Dam. Jones moved to Las Vegas in 1937 after he became an attorney.

Erma Linda Rivera was born in Morenci, Arizona, in 1952. In the Las Vegas Valley, where Linda has lived for over twenty years, she has promoted educational opportunities for youth, particularly in the Hispanic community. Both she and her husband moved from Montana, where her husband worked as a power plant operator on Yellowtail Dam, to southern Nevada to work on Hoover Dam in 1986. Linda was put in charge of the affirmative employment plan for her branch of the Bureau of Reclamation.