R. Ian Ross, better known as Ross, and wife Irmalee have dedicated their lives to serving, and improving, their community. Both Ross and Irmalee’s families moved to Las Vegas, from Los Angeles and Reno respectively, drawn by the opportunities presenting themselves in the growing city. While in college, Ross would spend his summers as busboy at the Sands hotel, where his mother worked as beauty consultant and salesperson. Ross attended law school, and soon after finishing, started a law firm with Jerry Snyder and Oscar Goodman. After a couple of years, Ross took a position with the City Attorney’s Office while also starting his own private firm. He later served as an assemblyman in 1977-78. In addition to his work as an attorney, Ross has engaged in various real estate ventures over the years, largely in North Las Vegas. He served as the president of the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and dedicated himself to developing this part of town. During this time, Irmalee was an active member in various social organizations, including Junior League, of which she still is a member. Having lived in Las Vegas for over 50 years, from ‘mob days’ to the present, Ross and Irmalee have accumulated unique experiences, and developed keen insights, about the growth, change and development of Las Vegas. Unlike others, they embrace the city’s continuing evolution as a community.

Interviewer: Dennis McBride

On April 12, 1977, collector Mark French interviewed Nanyu Tomiyasu (born May 28th, 1918 in Las Vegas, Nevada) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In this interview, Nanyu Tomiyasu discusses growing up and working on his father’s (Bill Yonema Tomiyasu) farm in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also discusses how his father came to Las Vegas and being one of the few Japanese families in Las Vegas as a child.

Byron Underhill's father owned the first Coca-Cola bottling plant, the first beer distributorship, and the first bowling alley in Las Vegas. Byron moved here from Needles, Calif., with his family in 1927. Byron later took over the bottling plant, served in the Army as an aircraft mechanic and a glider pilot during World War II, was a private pilot who worked with Search and Rescue, played in various bands, and suggested to the Lions club that they found a burn unit at University Medical Center that is still the only one in the state

I've known Christie Young for many years and was grateful she agreed to be interviewed for the Las Vegas Gay Archives Oral History Project. Not only is she frank in what she says, but her background as a researcher in sexual issues and as a straight woman involved in the gay community give her a unique perspective. Ancillary to her donation of this interview transcript to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Christie has generously donated her personal journals which detail more than a decade of her life including the years she worked with Las Vegas's gay community . Christie shares the project's concern that documentation of the gay community is ephemeral and vanishes rapidly; her determination that her contribution to that community be preserved greatly enriches our knowledge and will benefit future scholars.

Alice Ward Boyer arrived in Las Vegas from Oklahoma in 1937. Her brother and former husband came earlier to escape the dustbowl depression and get settled. In the middle of the summer, just at dusk, she emerged from the train at Kingman, Arizona with her two small children to meet her family and drive through the darkness to her new home in Las Vegas. Although she missed the trees of the Plains, she soon became accustomed to her desert home. Her recollections revive the older Las Vegas when community life characterized the small town. At the heart of her story is the Mesquite Club. The non-partisan civic activities of the Mesquite Club are part of a national history of women’s club voluntarism in the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. Founded in 1911, this pioneer Las Vegas women's club played an essential role in the development of the growing town. When few cultural or social services existed, the club raised funds for the first public library, developed parks for the city, and provided services and funding for the aged and youth. The Mesquite Club, along with the Parent Teacher Association, scouts, and church activities formed a network of community relations commonly found in developing towns and cities, but not ususally associated with Las Vegas. Alice Boyer joined the Mesquite club in 1944. She first served as the chair of the Garden Committee, then "went right up through the chairs," and was elected President of the club for 1958-59. (See Table of Offices Held). Speaking about the Mesquite Club founders, Alice Boyer said, “They were very forward-looking women. They knew that the town would grow and they wanted the best for the town.” As one of the second generation of members, she has found the club to be a continuing source of congenial social life and civic community building. Born in rural Oklahoma, she spent her early years on a ranch. Her parents met there shortly after "the run to open Oklahoma" around 1892. They met, married and had twelve children, nine of which survived. Alice came right in the middle. She spent her early years riding horses, wearing “overalls," and spending as much time as possible outside. The family moved into Clinton, Oklahoma for better schools for their children when she was in the fifth grade. Alice graduated from high school just as the Great Depression began and worked briefly at a newspaper before marriage. At the time of the interview, Alice Boyer’s vivaciousness, gracious manner, and sharp memory belied her 82 years. This interview has been produced with the assistance of the Mesquite Club and the History Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is part of a series on women community builders in Las Vegas. The transcript has been edited only slightly for clarity while the syntax and style of the narrator were retained.

Interviewed by Maribel Estrada Calderón. Barbara Tabach and Laurents Banuelos-Benitez also participate in the questioning. Erika Castro was born in Mexico City in 1989. At the age of three, she migrated with her family to the United States. She remembers entering Kindergarten without knowing how to speak English. She graduated from the College of Southern Nevada. Castro has since been a political activist. Subjects: PLAN, Planned Parenthood, Environmental Justice, UndocuNetwork, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DREAM Act