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McQuary, Gail S.
Gail Spaulding Jaros was born on October 16, 1937, in Cicero, Illinois. a suburb of Chicago. Her father Jerry Jaros was a professional saxaphone player and her mother, Fern Spaulding Jarosm was a professional trombone player. Gail began tap and ballet lessons when she was five years old. She signed as a dancer with Moro-Landis Productions in 1956, and she worked for that company at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Reno, and the Beverly Hills Country Club in Covington, Kentucky.
Person
Haselton, Velma, 1914-2009
Velma Haselton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1914. She worked as an assistant bookkeeper for Hart, Schaffner and Marx and rose to Assistant Credit Manager. Velma worked at various jobs after she married for the second time and her son was born. She also represented the San Francisco CPA firm Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery (now Coopers Lybrand) in various capacities, both in California and St. Louis, eventually attaining the position of controller.
Person
Apcar, Frederic, 1914-2008
Frederic Apcar transformed Las Vegas entertainment with his French style shows. Born in Paris, France on September 16, 1914, he trained in dance and became a chorus boy in “Folies Bergere.” After World War II, he formed an adagio act and performed at the “Lido de Paris.” He later expanded the production and brought it to the United States, appearing on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and in the “Folies Bergere” at the Tropicana. He then opened “Vive Les Girls” at the Dunes.
Person
Payne, Julia A., 1943-
Julia A. Payne was born in the 1940s in Santa Monica, California. Her parents had moved to southern California from Columbus, Ohio. After Julia graduated from high school in 1963, the family decided to move to Las Vegas where it was “less hectic.†Her father was one of the first African American athletic trainers for a professional football team. Her mother was swim team captain at Ohio State University and knew Dr. Ralph Bunche. For Julia, adjustment to Las Vegas was difficult. The city was not as diverse as Los Angeles.
Person
Den, the Pen
Las Vegas, Nevada native Dennis Lee Askew is a graduate of Valley High School. In the late 1940s his family moved to Las Vegas from Florida where they were involved in gambling operations. His father worked at the Sands Hotel for thirty years. As a young man, Dennis worked as a bus boy at the Sands, and later moved to southern California after his high school graduation. In the mid 1970s, Dennis led a successful rock band called Universe that played around southern California and Las Vegas. They disbanded and Dennis worked for Odyssey Records in Las Vegas.
Person
Duarte, Denise, 1960-
Denise Duarte was born in 1960 and is an activist and artist in Nevada. She led the Nevada Women's Lobby and Stand OUT for Equality, both important advocacy groups for women's and LGBTQ+ rights in Nevada.
Person
Piechota, Thomas Christopher, 1965-
Thomas C. Piechota was the vice president for research and economic development at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) as well as a professor of civil and environmental engineering. He was born in 1965. He studed civil engineering and recieved his B.S. from Northern Arizona University. From there, he went to the University of California, Los Angeles for his graduate work, receiving his master's and doctorate in civil and environmental engineering.
Person
Cancela, Yvanna, 1987-
Yvanna Cancela (born 1987) arrived in Las Vegas the summer of 2009. Fresh off a summer internship with Sen. Harry Reid in Washington, D.C., she was hired to work on Reid’s reelection
campaign. Yvanna’s political talents were blossoming as was her affection for southern Nevada.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in Miami, Florida, Yvanna’s parents immigrated from Cuban. She received her Bachelor of Arts in communications in 2010 from Northwestern University.
Person
Bland, Ora L., 1933-
Ora Bland migrated to Las Vegas in 1953 from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her husband was a radiologist and worked in Area 51 of the Nevada Test Site. He never shared information about his work and would sometimes stay at the Test Site for a week or more without coming into the city. Bland remembers the Westside business community when the Brown Derby, the Mexican store, Johnson Malt Shoppe, and Bravo Market existed. An extremely independent person, she handled most of the childcare and worked at the downtown post office (now MOB Museum) for 20 years.
Person
Urtubey, Juliana, 1986-
Born into a tumultuous Colombia, Juliana was about five years old when her parents relocated Juliana and her two older sisters to the United States. For a time, they settled in Chicago, then Arizona. She describes an upbringing that was safe and privileged. Education and preservation of bilingual speaking skills were held in high regard.
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