Eugene Buford came to Las Vegas, Nevada from Birmingham, Alabama, when he was two years old with his mother and grandmother. He held a variety of jobs, including washing dishes at the Last Frontier and delivering ice to casinos like the Flamingo and the Stardust, and ultimately retired after thirty-six years with the Post Office. Buford's great grandmother, Mary Nettles, was instrumental in the formation and growth of the NAACP chapter in Las Vegas, and he recalls meetings in her house and his own role as president of the Junior League NAACP.
Dell Ray Rhodes was born February 26, 1947 and was raised in Louisiana. When her grandmother fell ill in 1950, Rhodes’ mother wanted to nurse her and made a temporary visit to Las Vegas, Nevada. She remained, and this is how three-year-old Rhodes came to live in the Las Vegas area. The family resided on the Westside where she attended Westside Elementary School, Madison Elementary School, Jim Bridger Middle School, and graduated from Rancho High School. Rhodes married young and worked a variety of jobs between the births of her seven children.
Mike Pinjuv Jr. was born in 1924 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both of his parents were born in Austria-Hungary before World War I, now known as Croatia. His parents brought their family to Las Vegas in 1917 and raised six sons and two daughters during World War 1, the Great Depression, and World War II. Pinjuv Jr. attended Fifth Street School and graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1942. He became Nevada’s second registered jeweler and worked for M.J. Christensen for ten years. Pinjuv Jr.
Connie Hill Sheldon was born November 16, 1944 in Oklahoma and spent her early years in southern California before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1956 with her family. In Las Vegas, Sheldon and her siblings attended Sunrise Acres Elementary School before going to Rancho High School, and the family was active with Homesite Baptist Church. While she was at Rancho High, Sheldon worked at the Huntridge Theater, and she continued working there after she graduated. In 1968, Sheldon married fellow Rancho Class of 1962 classmate, Clyde, in Goldfield, Nevada.
Born in 1898, Edward Bartlett Cormack wrote his first play as a nineteen year-old college student before taking a job as a newspaper reporter. In 1927, he wrote The Racket as a stage play; a year later he created the silent screen version of the story for Howard Hughes. The film was nominated for a best picture award in 1929. Bartlett would go on to write twenty-five plays and screenplays before his death in 1944.