David Bartlett’s Nevada roots run far and deep. He was born in Las Vegas in 1940 (son to Fred Bartlett), but his family moved to Reno when David was in grade school. A great joy was for him to return to Las Vegas and spend time with both sets of grandparents: David and Julia Lorenzi (maternal) and Byron and Dessa Bartlett (paternal). In local history, both families represent the early entrepreneurship and craftsmanship of residents: from the Bartlett Brothers Hardware to Grandfather Lorenzi’s stonework that still graces such landmarks as the grottos at St.

Barbara Bates Kirkland was born 1934 in Shreveport, Louisiana. On a sunny day in 1946, Kirkland and her mother stepped off the train from Shreveport and onto the Western street of Fremont in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Kirkland’s mother, Atha Toliver, found employment as a maid. Toliver, who was determined that her daughter would get an education and a finer future, saw this as her opportunity to achieve this for her daughter. Later, she opened Eva’s Flower Basket, a floral shop that Kirkland would operate after retiring from teaching.