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Scalley, Priscilla
Priscilla Scalley was born November 4, 1941 and was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She married her husband, Joseph, on December 26, 1964. The Scalleys arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1972 with their two young daughters. The couple took out two mortgages to buy their house in the Rancho Nevada Estates section of Ward 1. As a young mother, Scalley joined the West Charleston Elementary School Parent Teacher Association and eventually became president.
Person
Gans, Jim
E. James (Jim) Gans was raised in Seattle, Washington and Yakima, Washington before he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1950. Gans started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on to Rancho High School where he graduated. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for 25-cents an hour.
Person
Hensley, Ernest W., 1940-
Ernie Hensley III was born March 14, 1940 to parents Ernest W. Hensley Jr. and Gladys Barbara Hensley. He was raised in Washington, D.C. At the age of seven, he found a saxophone in his grandmother’s attic and embarked on his musical journey. He took lessons at the Modern School of Music in D.C., acquiring proficiency with the clarinet and the flute through long hours of practice. Hensley attended a historically black school, Armstrong High School, until he was transferred to McKinley High School in 1954, following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Person
Jetter, Judy, 1939-
Judy Jetter was born November 18, 1939 and was raised in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of three, she began taking acting, tap, and ballet classes. While raised by her mother until age 15, she was forced to study opera, even though jazz music was her passion. Jetter’s first introduction to jazz came while listening to, legendary jazz great, Woody Herman on the radio. She developed an immediate appreciation and love for jazz music.
Person
Kerestesi, Thomas
Thomas Kerestesi was born on July 16, 1950 in Redding, California to Joy and Frank Kerestesi. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1956. He went to West Charleston Elementary School, Hyde Park Junior High School, Bishop Gorman High School, and the University of Nevada, Reno. He worked at Cragin and Pike Insurance Agency for 38 years.
Person
Lintner, Linda
Linda Lintner was born March 27, 1944 in North Carolina. The daughter of a soldier, she and her mother traveled from North Carolina to Overton, Nevada to stay with Lintner’s grandparents when she was only six weeks old. After her father joined the family, they moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where both her mother and father started working at the Post Office. Lintner attended local elementary school and middle schools in the valley, and graduated from Rancho High School in 1962.
Person
Scodwell, Tony
Tony Scodwell was born on December 01, 1942 in Beloit, Wisconsin to Joyce Marie Conery and Anton John Scodwell. He first arrived to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1964. He went to Berklee School of Music and was a Jazz Musician.
Person
Molasky, Beth, 1950-
Beth Molasky-Cornell was born November 29, 1950 in Florida and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada before her second birthday. She graduated from Valley High School in 1968, and started college at the University of Southern California at the age of seventeen. After spending a couple of years in Rhode Island, where she had her children, she moved back to Las Vegas in 1975.
Person
Pollak, George
George Pollak was born October 31, 1924 and raised in Mattapan, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, the second youngest of five kids. He could listen to a song on the radio and play it on the piano by ear when he was as young as four years old. He had several jobs growing up, including working in a record store and as a busboy. Eventually Pollak and his brother joined a trio with Steve Harrington and performed in clubs. On April 1, 1951, Pollak married his wife, Florence, in Boston.
Person
McLean, Charlie
Charlie McLean was born in 1932 and raised in Scotland to a family of musicians. McLean’s dad started teaching him to play the saxophone when he was eight years old. By the time he was nine years old, he was performing in his father’s band, which included playing concerts for the munitions workers during World War II. When he was 15, McLean’s family migrated to the United States. Following graduating from high school, McLean was drafted and played with the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO) Club Band.
Person