Barbara Bates Kirkland was born 1934 in Shreveport, Louisiana. On a sunny day in 1946, Kirkland and her mother stepped off the train from Shreveport and onto the Western street of Fremont in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kirkland’s mother, Atha Toliver, found employment as a maid. Toliver, who was determined that her daughter would get an education and a finer future, saw this as her opportunity to achieve this for her daughter. Later, she opened Eva’s Flower Basket, a floral shop that Kirkland would operate after retiring from teaching.
Jeanne Maxwell Williams was born August 25, 1924 in Scarsdale, New York. Williams married Ed Wilson, son of Charles Wilson, President of General Motors, and left for Las Vegas, Nevada in 1965. Williams worked at The Summa Corporation as a Women’s Events Coordinator. She kept the wives of golfers busy with luncheons featuring speakers like Ann Landers, and David Frost. But soon Williams married Jack Kent Cooke, one-time owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. She moved with him to Virginia where her art career dwindled.
Anna Peltier was born September 12, 1978 and grew up in Escanaba, Michigan, on the Upper Peninsula. She studied music performance at Michigan State University, but after discovering her love of landscape architecture, she changed majors and earned her degree in landscape architecture. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007 and first worked for JW Zunino Landscape Architects. While with Zunino, Peltier did design work for Lorenzi Park, the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum, and designed the award-winning Cactus Avenue Interchange.
Kevin Brady was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Pennsylvania. Brady started in the gaming industry in 1993 as a surveillance officer for Players International Lake Charles and eventually became a surveillance supervisor at Paragon Casino Resort. He later became a surveillance manager and casino controller at Harrah’s St. Louis where he worked in finance while also earning his master’s degree in business administration.
Weltha Charlotte Rowberry was born in Carston, Albert, Canada on July 11, 1912. She married Elmo Hughes Ellsworth on October 16, 1936 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She worked in Las Vegas as a room reservation manager at the Flamingo Hotel from 1950 to 1967, then the Frontier Hotel from 1969 to 1970. After her husband died, she moved to Reno, Nevada where she worked as the room reservation manager for the MGM Grand Reno. She died in Salt Lake City on July 16, 1998.
In July of 1955, Joanne Molen's husband was offered a job at Nellis Air Force Base, so they moved from Alturas, California, to Las Vegas. Joanne had worked for Citizens Utilities in Alturas as a Western Union teletype operator, so she got a job with the Southern Nevada Telephone Company. She was the only woman to hold some of the positions she held. She worked for the telephone company, which became Sprint, for more than forty years, ending up as a main engineer.
Margaret M. "Maggie" Price, 88, of Boulder City, passed away Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006. She was born Sept. 27, 1918, in Freeport, Ill., and spent her childhood growing up in Columbus and Lebanon, Ohio. Maggie married Frank, a native of Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 3, 1938. They moved to Las Vegas in 1949. Maggie worked at the Sands Hotel as a showroom waitress during the "Rat Pack" era. She retired to take care of her daughter, Patti Kay. Years later, they moved to Boulder City.
Myrna Williams was born in Chicago in 1929. Her brother was the singer Mel Tormé, so the family moved to Hollywood when she was ten because her brother was under contract with MGM. Shortly after Myrna turned 21, she moved to New York to work for Decca Records. She met the jazz drummer David Williams, whom she married. Myrna, David, and their daughter Indy moved to Las Vegas in 1959. Myrna got involved in politics, and was elected to the Nevada State Assembly and to the Clark County Commission.
Lambert VanDerMeer was a 55-year resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. He was born in Holland in November 23, 1899, and was a member of the North Las Vegas, Nevada Host Lions Club. He died October 07, 1983.