Harriet Thornton Hicks was born June 8, 1913 in Parowan, Utah; the thirteenth child of 14. In 1931, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to join two older sisters who had relocated there. She was picked up at the train by young Charles Hicks, who was a friend of her sisters. Charles had a car and offered to provide transportation. Within three years, the two were married. Hicks quit her drug store job to raise a family and he worked for the railroad, the only business at the time in Las Vegas.
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Barbara Ann Barnett was born July 24, 1936 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Ralph Eugene Goodman and Katherine Cynthia Pendergrass. Barnett moved to Nevada in 1959. When she first moved to Nevada she worked as an accountant for a small business. Afterwards she became a licensed practical nurse and worked at Rose de Lima Hospital in the psychiatric unit. Barnett came to Nevada with her husband William Barnett the two divorced in 1961. Barnett gave birth to her sone in September of 1963.
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Bishop James M. Rogers was born around 1951 and was raised on a plantation in Louisiana near Tallulah, Louisiana. He arrived to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1970 at the age of 19, and was mentored by Dr. F.N. Addison. He also started to attend community rallies and town hall meetings. His initial involvement in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) happened through supporting his pastor and getting involved in marches and news conferences.
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Kim Bird was born October 18, 1943 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1955 and attended Twin Lakes Elementary School. Bird grew up in a Las Vegas that was run by the mob and safe for teenagers. She would meet friends in local hangouts such as the Blue Onion and attend sock hops, babysit, and cruise down Fremont Street. She attended high school with black students and was aware of the segregation that existed on the Las Vegas Strip. Bird was married in 1961 and had a son and daughter.
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Arby Hambric was born November 24, 1926 in Teague, Texas. He started working in the cotton fields at around age seven and was drafted into the United States Navy, before completing high school. Hambric enrolled in San Diego State College after leaving the U.S. Navy. He also worked as maintenance personnel for Sears and Roebuck, and started a catering business with his wife, Veronica. Hambric moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1976 after his wife died, and he became a member of the Southern Nevada Enterprise Company Board.
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Jacqueline Tilman MacFarlane was born on May 04, 1934 to Dorothy Reed Tilman and John Franklin Tilman. The family lived in Las Vegas in the 1930s. Her family moved to and lived in rural Nevada because of the Great Depression and eventually came back to Las Vegas, Nevada. She raised her children in the Fair Circle neighborhood during the 1950s and 1960s and worked in various casinos. After she left the Sahara Hotel and Casino in 1977, she began selling Vanda cosmetics, which she still does as of February 04, 2010.
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M.J. Christensen was born in Milford, Utah around 1896. He started out as a railroad watch inspector, out of Milford, before relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada and opening his own jewelry business and store. He considers himself a conservative Democrat and states that he led an active political life in Nevada, where he was head of the Merchant’s Bureau in Las Vegas. From there, he went on to become president of the Chamber of Commerce and later, the president of the Better Business Bureau.
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Dazzio was born in Pueblo, Colorado and his family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1950s. He became one of the first students at the Hotel College at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)-- then Nevada Southern-- in 1968 after he graduated from Western High School. He worked with Stardust Hotel and Casino executives while in his early 20s. Dazzio was a hotel operator for ITT Sheraton and was the founding partner for R&R Global Hospitality, a third-party management firm.
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John Foley is the youngest of five sons born on July 18, 1927 to Roger T. and Helen Foley. He attended Fifth Street Elementary School and Las Vegas High School. Foley was a Nevada state senator as well as a lawyer and encouraged the creation of the William S. Boyd School of Law at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Ed Walters was born and raised in New York, New York. Walters was a pool and card hustler in New York when he was in his twenties. In 1959, he was asked by a major crime boss to go to Las Vegas, Nevada to find out if a card dealer was cheating. Ed did figure out that the dealer was cheating, so the crime boss got him a job learning the Western card games at the Fremont during the day and being a pit boss at the Sands at night. He worked at the Sands until 1967 and then at various other casinos until approximately 1981.
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