Architect Thomas J. Schoeman was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York, and was the first of his four siblings to graduate high school and attend college. Schoeman attended Nassau Community College and then transferred to the University of New Mexico in the early 1970s, from which he graduated in 1974. After spending his first five years out of college working as an architect in New Mexico, Schoeman received a job offer from Jack Miller and Associates (later, JMA Studio) and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1979. He stayed with JMA for many years, eventually becoming partner, president, and Chief Executive Officer. While at JMA, Schoeman designed, among many other iconic Las Vegas buildings, the original UNLV Dickinson Library, the Nevada Power building, One Queensridge Place, and World Market Center as well as expansions to McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Before he retired at age 62, Schoeman negotiated the sale of JMA to Baker International, an engineering and architectural firm, for which he worked for a short time as architectural director of. He also arranged for Baker International to agree to donate many early JMA records to Special Collections at UNLV Libraries. In his retirement he designs multifamily dwellings and other buildings that will help create community and revitalize Downtown Las Vegas.

David Bartlett’s Nevada roots run far and deep. He was born in Las Vegas in 1940, 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. Joan of Arc Catholic church and at Bishop Gorman High School. Of particular note is that David’s grandfather, David Lorenzi, envisioned the recreational park known as Lorenzi Park and is located in the Twin Lakes area of Las Vegas. Today David is retired from a long career in auto/truck sales. He lives in Las Vegas and is active in several community organizations including the Elks Lodge and Three Square.

Gladys Neville's story begins in Crowley, Louisiana, in 1915. She grew up as one of eleven children, graduated from high school in 1933, and entered nursing school at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. After earning her RN in 1937, she continued to work at Charity for four years, then joined the Army and served in the European Theater for three years. Gladys details her experience in nursing school, explaining that students were given on-the-job training. With that training and four years of nursing after that, she was well qualified to join the 24th General Hospital overseas deployment in WWII. It was during her stay in Florence, Italy, that she was married and not too long after that, the war ended and she and her husband were transferred back to the States. Her husband's work for Bank of America took them to Laguna Beach, Salt Lake City, and Idaho Falls. Their children were bom during this period and Gladys took a 20 year hiatus from nursing. In 1962 they moved to Las Vegas and in 1964 Gladys decided to take a refresher course at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital (now University Medical Center). After that refresher course, Gladys was hired for a full-time day shift at UMC. She and the interviewer share many details about the hospital's physical appearance, the staffing, location of surgeries and burn units, and how the RN's encouraged LPN's to continue their training and become nurses. Gladys concludes her interview with further recollections of her military nursing experience. She also gives more details about her war-time wedding. Among her final comments, she mentions the stress of working full time when her husband was ill.

Linda Falba McSweeney’s memories read like a Las Vegas history book. Arriving in town as a five-year-old in 1950, Linda’s family lived in the Huntridge area of town. Her father was a casino manager in various properties Downtown and on the Strip and even worked in Cuba during the Batista era. She and her two siblings attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School, St. Anne’s School, and Bishop Gorman High School. They marched in the city’s Helldorado Parades, and she was a BGHS cheerleader. Through it all their parents (even Dad, who worked graveyard shifts and seldom took a day off) enthusiastically supported all their endeavors and attended all their events. Linda tells of playing at Maryland Parkway’s circle park and earning a black eye from the cutest boy in the neighborhood; she recalls making forts in the bamboo forest near Fifteenth Street and Oakey Boulevard (until two schoolmates, who didn’t know how to stub out their illicit cigarettes, burned the bamboo forest down). Linda knows most of Nevada’s movers and shakers because she played with them or with their children.