John Kell Houssels Jr. was born in Denver, Colorado on December 11, 1922. His family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he was eight years old, and his father recieved one of Nevada's first gambling licenses. John Kell, also known as Ike, would follow in his father's footsteps and go on to help Las Vegas gain fame as an entertainment destination. After serving in the military and finishing his undergraduate education at West Point Military Academy in 1945, he went to law school at Stanford. After finishing his schooling, he returned to Las Vegas.
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Mary Helen Ainsworth (also known as Mary Helen Rowley and Mary Helen Anderson) was born on November 5, 1924 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1940s and obtained a bachelor's degree in nursing. Mary Helen had two children with her husband Louis Ainsworth. She worked in the local Las Vegas hospitals as a rehabilitation nurse. In 1978, she donated the Ainsworth Collection to University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), a collection of early Las Vegas memorabilia. Mary Helen passed away on March 18, 2014.
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Louis Charles Ainsworth was born on July 22, 1921 in Manchester, New Hampshire. He served in the United States Air Force from 1942 to 1946 as a corporal and settled in Silver City, New Mexico. He married Mary Helen Rowley, who survived him after his death in 1986. He had five children, two from his marriage with Mary Helen and three from a previous marriage to Betty Jean Conger. He passed away on July 18, 1986 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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