Della Mae Rostine left Missouri with her husband, Rocco, in 1942, and headed to Las Vegas. Happy to leave behind the hard life and instability the mining industry had to offer, after living in Las Vegas for the first year the couple settled in Henderson, Nevada, known as the townsite at that time. Della Mae’s oral history provides readers with a glimpse of what life was like for the 14,000-plus individuals and families who also moved to southern Nevada during the same period in order to make a living in the growing “war work” industry the area had to offer. Della Mae shares the hardships faced in finding housing, especially for families with children. She discusses challenges ranging from securing home furnishings to purchasing groceries, including the rations on gasoline and butter at that time. Della Mae also discusses her experiences with the Basic Magnesium plant where her husband was hired as a construction worker in the early days of the plant and where she would work briefly as a machinist making shell casings and monitoring the down time on the production line. She also touches briefly on the social opportunities the BMI plant, and later Rheem Manufacturing, offered to the workers and their families. When World War II ended, more than half of residents of the townsite left, leaving fewer than 7,000 people to form what would later become the city of Henderson, Nevada. Della Mae’s oral history is a brief overview of a family life which began when BMI was just getting off the ground and continued through the many changes that took place in the BMI complex and the town site over several decades. The timing of the Rostine family’s arrival and the fact that they stayed and made a permanent home in Henderson led to their designation as one of Henderson’s “founding families.”
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Among the stories of those who came to Las Vegas in the 1960s to work at the Nevada Test Site is that of Leslie Dunn and his wife Joan. Leslie had been hired by the U.S. Public Health Service to monitor radiation from the explosions. He has tales flying into craters that make you wide-eyed. This assignment would last until his “retirement” in 1983 – one can’t really describe this couple as retired. During these early years, while Les pursued his scientist career, Joan’s chief focus was on raising their three children, Bruce Dunn, Loryn Dunn Arkow, and Sharon Dunn Levin. She also completed her education in accounting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was involved with Equal Right Amendment efforts and League of Women Voters. The couple were only in their forties when Les left the PHS. As he looked forward to new opportunities, he felt compelled to pursue his longtime dream to become a builder, something he had dabbled at as a youngster with his father, Jack Dunn. Together, he an
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Brad Friedmutter is the architect behind a number of Steve Wynn’s prominent casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey. He obtained his degree in architecture in 1973 from the Cooper Union School of Architecture in lower Manhattan and worked on a number of smaller projects before connecting with Steve Wynn. After meeting the famous Vegas tycoon, Friedmutter built a number of well-known casinos, like the Golden Nugget and the Mirage. In this interview, he discusses the development of his numerous projects, explains his process for starting and completing architectural projects, and the future of urban planning and casino design.
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From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file.
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From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file. Presented at 5th Annual West Coast Meeting of National Social Science Association, Scottsdale, Arizona.
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From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Unpublished manuscripts file.
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From the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Theta Theta Omega Chapter Records (MS-01014) -- Chapter records file.
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Oral history interview with Cathrine Abrigo conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on July 20, 2022 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Abrigo describes her early life in the Philippines, where she attended Catholic school and briefly studied medical technology in college. She describes immigrating to Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and the difficulty of leaving her immediate family behind. She discusses working for the Cosmopolitan in 2011 and becoming deeply involved with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. Throughout the interview, Abrigo talks about religion, food, and her activism with the Culinary Union.
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Oral history interview with Julian Eusebio conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Jerwin Tiu, and Stefani Evans on June 01, 2022 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Eusebio discusses his childhood in the Philippines countryside, helping his parents farm and harvest rice. After moving to Manila for college, Eusebio studied architecture and illustrated for comics and magazines. After moving to Los Angeles, California, Eusebio started a construction business, doing landscapes and constructing swimming pools for celebrities such as Michael Jackson. In 1992, he opened another branch in Las Vegas, Nevada. After retiring in 2010, Eusebio took up painting again and cites his favorite artists as Norman Rockwell and Rembrandt. In the remainder of the interview, he discusses his drawing process and how he started showing his artwork throughout the Las Vegas Clark County Library District.
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Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández, Rodrigo Vazquez, and Laurents Benitez-Bañuelos. A native of Jalisco, Mexico, moved to Las Vegas when he was about 20-year old in 1987. Attended CSN and UNLV. His history with Las Vegas is embedded in the 1980s Las Vegas gay scene and education for AIDS. He is and activist and the Executive Director of Aid for AIDS of Nevada. He and Theodore Small are the first same-sex marriage in Nevada.
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