On Tuesday, July 11th, 1995, Margaret Louis interviewed distance learning student, Andrea Chrestensen (born March, 23rd, 1948, in Carson City, Nevada) at Northern Nevada Community College. During the interview Chrestensen discusses nursing education and her job as a school nurse to kindergarten and grade one students. She expresses her aspirations of becoming a nurse practitioner working in emergency rooms in hospitals. She is a fifth generation Nevadan. Her family was one of the founding families of Nevada.
In Elko on Juny 10, 1995 Pamela Gale participates in an interview at UNLV, and discusses her experiences with nursing and with the Distance Learning Program at UNLV.
Ethelda Thelan takes a detailed look back at her long career in public nursing, starting with her education at University of California San Francisco. She came to Nevada in June of 1951, after working at the school of nursing in Charlottesville, Virginia. After two years at the Washoe Medical Center in northern Nevada, Ethelda became a staff public health nurse at Washoe County Health Department and eventually joined the Nevada Nurses Association (1955). She mentions many doctors and nurses with whom she worked in both northern and southern Nevada, and details responsibilities and actions taken by her and others for both public health and continuing education for nurses. Ethelda offers up memories of early Las Vegas, opinions on how Las Vegans felt about atomic testing at the Test Site, her varied work history, and her continuing education business. She also suggests other sources for researching information about the medical profession in Nevada.
Mike Lommori, a student at UNLV, interviews Professor Charles Adams, born in 1929 in Joliet, Illinois, about the changes in Southern Nevada over the previous 20 years. The two discuss, more specifically, changes at the university over several years and the way student life has evolved. Adams also discusses some of the differences between Las Vegas and the small town in which he grew up, and he mentions some of the changes in the gaming industry.
Laura Taylor was born in New Haven, Connecticut and spent her childhood bouncing between New York and Ohio to follow her father’s career. Robert Cox, her father, was a businessman who attended Syracuse University on the GI Bill. Her mother, Lillian Cox (neé Bower) was concert pianist and college music professor. At the age of seventeen, Taylor received a scholarship to attend the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Powell. Unfortunately, Dr. Powell died two years later, which prompted a move into commercial music. Taylor performed at a number of local clubs as well as soloed in national commercial campaigns for United Airlines and Buick. She moved to Miami, Florida with her first husband in her early 20s. After she and her husband divorced, Taylor recorded her first album with Good Sounds Records of Criteria Studios. Her songs Dancin’ in My Feet, Lady Scorpion, All Through Me, and Some Love made Billboard and Record World charts. She returned to New York City and formed the Laura Taylor Trio to perform jazz music in famous hotels like the Plaza Hotel and The Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Taylor moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1983 to open for Don Rickles at the Desert Inn Hotel, which led to many years of performing in the Desert Inn’s Starlight Theater. She married her second and current husband, Robert Cox, in 1985 after meeting him at a concert. Taylor also enjoyed a number of jazz performances on public radio and at a number of venues across Las Vegas. Today, Laura Taylor is still active in the jazz world of Las Vegas, serving as a member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Jazz Society. She also continues to write and perform jazz music, appearing at Smith Center for Performing Arts as well as releasing five CDs.
Dorothy Eisenberg is a full-time volunteer. She worked on various causes as a member of the League of Women Voters and led the fight for integration of the Clark County School District as League president in the early 1970s. Dorothy directed the Citizens Governmental Forum and served as vice-chair of the Citizens Committee on Consolidation. Governor O'Callaghan appointed her to the Local Government Employee Management Board in 1977, and she traveled across the state of Nevada arbritrating cases between state employees and local governments. In 1979 Dorothy was the first woman to be elected president of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. In 1978 she formed the Silver State PAC, a political action committee backing federal candidates who were supportive of Israel. In 1988, Governor Bryan appointed her county commissioner for the short-lived Bullfrog County
Frances "Fran" Montes is the first woman to serve as president of Hispanics in Politics (HIP) and one of a small number of Hispanic women who are acknowedged as spokespersons for the diverse Hispanic community in the Las Vegas Valley. She is the Diversity Officer for Bechtel Nevada Corporation, a member of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Community Advisory Board of the Women's Research Institute of Nevada, and one of the earliest members of NALA (Nevada Association of Latin Americans).
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. She thought there should be more Hispanics working for the Bureau of Reclamation, but she found that there weren't many Hispanics studying engineering. Linda reached out to John Medina at the Southern Nevada Hispanic Employment Program for help. He convinced her to become involved with the program, and she would later become its conference chair. Linda organized the Family Leadership Module for parents in the Clark County School District to give advice and encouragement for parents who are non-native speakers of English, so that they feel more confident becoming involved in the school district. She currently works as the Diversity Officer for the Bureau of Reclamation in Boulder City.
Myrna Williams was born in Chicago in 1929. Her brother was the singer Mel Tormé, so the family moved to Hollywood when she was ten because her brother was under contract with MGM. Shortly after Myrna turned 21, she moved to New York to work for Decca Records. She met the jazz drummer David Williams, whom she married. Myrna, David, and their daughter Indy moved to Las Vegas in 1959. Myrna got involved in politics, and was elected to the Nevada State Assembly and to the Clark County Commission. She also taught in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' department of social work for eleven years. Myrna is also a member of numerous community organizations and sits on the board of the Public Education Foundation and the Anti-Defamation League. Her greatest accomplishment in her opinion is the development of the Cambridge Recreation Center, a community center that houses a skate park and a pool, as well as programming that focuses on at risk youth. In 2007 it was designated as the Myrna Tormé Community Campus.
After Irene Porter's father's retirement from the Air Force, the family moved to Las Vegas where her aunt and uncle were involved in the gaming industry. After she married, she and her husband Dick moved to Boston. They moved back to Las Vegas due to the bad economy in Boston. Irene worked for the Clark County Planning Department as a secretary but moved up to doing the work of the director, but without the title nor the pay of that position, so she went to work in the planning department of the city of North Las Vegas and became its director of planning. She was one of only five female planning directors in the country. Next Irene began lobbying at the Nevada legislature and became the first female full-time lobbyist in Nevada. She was fired from North Las Vegas following a secret meeting, and her subsequent lawsuit led directly to the first open meeting law in the state of Nevada. Irene then went to work for American Nevada Corporation, which was developing Green Valley. She became the first female project director on such a construction project. In 1977 Irene began to work for the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association. She built it into an effective lobbying organization and continued to work as a lobbyist at the Nevada legislature. At the time of the interview, she was the executive director/CEO for the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association.