Treva Roles was born March 10, 1928 to Louis and Katherine Smith, and spent her childhood in Erie, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois with five other siblings. During the Great Depression, Roles’s father used his entrepreneurial skills to turn his traveling salesman profession into a family business, selling personal inventions. Eventually, he decided to sell the business, and buy a motel out west to retire. The motel ended up being the Fair Price Motel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Roles soon moved out to help the family run it.

Billy Paul Smith was born in 1942 and educated in segregated black schools in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Texarkana, Texas. He graduated from high school at fifteen and enrolled at Prairie View A&M University, where he trained with the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). He earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and in 1964, his Master’s degrees in chemistry and math. Smith’s math and science background steered him to the United States Army Chemical Corps, where he was quickly selected to join a new team.

In 1965, Chilean-born Mariteresa Rivera-Rogers (b. 1943) and husband Enrique Rivera set out on their adventurous leap and moved to the United States. Sponsored by an aunt living in Las Vegas, their resident visas took only three months to process—a task that would take years in today’s world she explains. Their first home was on Convention Center Drive, though they and their four children would experience several different neighborhoods over the years.

Dallamy has beautiful memories of her childhood in Cuba where she played on the beach and in the fruit orchards. Her parents were separated, so she grew up with her mother and her siblings. Her father was a school teacher who was going to school for his doctorate. He urged Dallamy to pursue higher education, so she began a teaching program and was well on her way to receive a federal scholarship. In her last year of school Dallamy decided instead to move to the United States with her then partner.

For Kelly Benavidez (b. 1976), life began in the northern California community of Daly City in a Spanish-speaking household. Her parents, Amelia and Genaro Benavidez, were among the few Latinos in their area at the time. Her parents felt strongly about immersing Kelly and her older brother in their Mexican culture. They made the important decision to return to Jalisco, Mexico with their young children.

Flo Mlynarczyk was born in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Her parents divorced and she moved with her mother first to Loveland, Colorado and eventually to Los Angeles, California. Upon graduation from high school in 1943, Mlynarczyk moved to Kodiak, Alaska, to live with friends.