F. Andrew Taylor was born June 06, 1963 and was raised in Connecticut. He moved to New England and Georgia before arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1991 at the age of 28. Armed with a degree in painting from the Swain School of Design, Taylor got a job at a Laughlin, Nevada casino as a caricature artist. After a brief stay in Laughlin and Bullhead City, Arizona, he moved to Ward I, Nevada, where his girlfriend, now wife, lived.
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Helen Anderson was born Helen Eileen Herndon on May 03, 1926 in Marceline, Missouri. She attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and received her Master’s degree in speech corrections/therapy from the University of Southern California. In the early 1960s, a romance with Las Vegas, Nevada civil rights worker Jim Anderson budded in Los Angeles, California at the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) meetings. In 1964, they got married and she moved to Las Vegas.
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Gertrude Toston was born May 09, 1947 in Galveston, Texas, and grew up in Austin, Texas. Her parents moved to Seattle, Washington, to provide more opportunities for their children but ended up separating. Toston’s mother brought the children to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1960 to have the support of her sister while she divorced. Her sister's husband, Reverend Coleman, was the pastor of Second Baptist Church, and the family became very involved in church activities.
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John G. Tryon was born December 18, 1920 and grew up in Washington, D.C., the oldest of three sons. His father worked with the National Bituminous Coal Commission during the Depression and his mother was editor of the American Association of University Women's Publications.
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Byron Underhill was born February 02, 1919 and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1927. Underhill and his father owned and operated the first Coca Cola Bottling Company in Clark County, Nevada. Underhill had three children, born between 1948 and 1955.
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Eleanor Walker served as President of the Las Vegas, Nevada Chapter of the NAACP in the early 1970s. She has held several jobs throughout her lifetime, including ones at Pan American Airways, AT&T, and Caesars Palace. She was among the first black individuals to hold a position in many of the companies for which she worked, paving the way for future generations. Some of her most noteworthy work was with Operation Independence and the NAACP, as she played a role in many positive changes made for Westside Las Vegas and the African American community.
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Marcia L. Washington was born in Tallulah, Louisiana on February 8th, 1953. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1966, she was 13 and had always attended black only schools. In Las Vegas, she would experience her first school integration and bussing. Marcia Washington and Dave Washington got married on June 10, 1972, and eventually had four children, April, Vernon, Angel and Amber. In 2000, her passions lead her to become the first African American on the State Board of Education, where she was an active voice for eight years.
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Eva Poole Whaley was born on November 22, 1942 in Fordyce, Arkansas. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1960s. She worked in the Clark County School District. She and her husband were restaurant owners before Eva worked at Nevada Power, and then for the telephone company.
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Nathaniel Whaley was born on July 01, 1934 in Tallulah, Louisiana. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1943. He married his wife Eva, in 1984. Before leaving high school to provide for his new wife and son, Nathaniel had a successful high school career as an accomplished athlete and Eagle Scout in the first black Boy Scout troop in the area. Nathaniel would go on to have a fruitful career as a mason and contractor, literally helping build the city of Las Vegas. His jobs included the Dunes, the Sands, Union Plaza and the Maxim Hotel.
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June F. Whitley was born in San Angelo, Texas and raised in Pittsburg, California. She met Lewis Whitley at the First Baptist Church in Pittsburg. They were married in 1955, and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1958. June found work as a maid for the Sahara Hotel before being hired at the Centel Telephone Company as an operator. In 1978, June became involved in local politics sought a seat on the Board of Regents for Clark County Community College, and eventually became the first woman Chairperson of the board.
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