Roundtable oral history interview moderated by Claytee D. White on November 1, 2014 for the West Charleston Neighborhoods: an Oral History Project of Ward 1. Participants include Nancy Johnson, Naomi Lytle Gibbs, Deborah Faye Bond Origer, Kacey Santelman Brooks, Olivia Brooks, Helen Dawson, Rollie Gibbs, Judy Lee Snyder Santelman, and Gary Gibson. They discuss growing up in the Pinto-Palomino neighborhood north of West Charleston between Campbell Drive and Rancho Drive, the focus on horses and horseback riding, the Helldorado Days parades, and serving as Rodeo Queens. They also talk about the culture and personality of the neighborhood, famous residents including Wayne Newton, coming back to live in the neighborhood after moving away, and forming the neighborhood association.
Oral history interview with Patricia Lee conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee White on September 19, 2023 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Lee begins the interview by discussing her childhood in Daegu, South Korea, born to a Black American father and a Korean mother. Patricia Lee arrived in the United States with her parents as a young child when the U.S. Air Force transferred her father to Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. Lee was seven when her father left. With her mother speaking no English, Lee was responsible for her family's food stamps and social services even as they endured serial evictions and homelessness that included a stay in a shelter for abused women. In middle school, Upward Bound was Lee's "game-changer." As she had in high school, Lee immersed herself in student life and academics at the University of Southern California, while also working several jobs. After graduation, she worked at the California Science Center Museum before entering law school at George Washington University. She graduated in May 2002, shortly after the legal profession had lost several top law firms that had been headquartered in New York City's Twin Towers. When she accepted an offer from Las Vegas firm Hutchison & Steffen, she became the firm's first woman attorney and first attorney of color; seven years later, she became the firm's first woman partner and first partner of color. Lee was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Nevada in November 2022 by Governor Steve Sisolak.
Hoover Dam group photo at the Snackateria. Identified from left to right, standing in back row: 1. Unknown, 2. Unknown, 3. Lola Adams, 4. L.J. Hudlow, Boulder Canyon Project Manager, Hoover Dam, 5. Unknown, 6. Audrey Bascon Talt, Manager of Blind Center, 7. Unknown, 8. Unknown, 9. Unknown, 10. James Huchingson, Regional Administrative Officer. Children in the front row are unknown. Inscription with photo reads: "The group of blind and 'seers' who were at opening of Snackateria at Boulder Dam." [Identified by Dorothy Dorothy 11-1-84] Site Name: Snackateria
Oral history interviews with the Genovese Family conducted by Shirley Emerson on August 20, August 29, September 05, and September 13, 2013 for the West Charleston Neighborhoods: An Oral History Project of Ward 3. In these interviews, the Genoveses (Robert, Ann, Joseph, Patrick, and David) discuss their lives in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1963. The family discusses the growth and development of Las Vegas and Robert and Anne's home in McNeil Estates. They talk about Robert’s career as a musician, the city’s recession in 1964, and the influence of organized crime in Las Vegas. Joseph recalls the development of Henderson and Boulder City, Nevada, his career in land development, and local government in the 1970s and 1980s. Later, Patrick discusses Las Vegas’ dependency on gaming industry taxes and the need for industry diversification. He talks about the lack of government investment in public goods, public education challenges, and water supply issues. Lastly, David recalls public school integration, attending a sixth grade center, and what it was like when the Nevada Test Site conducted nuclear explosions.
Lyn Robinson was born January 16, 1978 in Florida. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1999 and became a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She was an art major with a concentration on photography. Robinson also had a deep appreciation of the horror of the Holocaust and what the survivors she would take photos of had endured. This began a two year project, during which she took photos of over sixty survivors. Robinson’s images were displayed at the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center.