Judge Lloyd D. George was born on February 22, 1930, in Montpelier, Idaho. He attended grade school and high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, and earned his B.S. degree from Brigham Young University in 1955. Later that same year, He entered the United States Air Force and worked as a fighter pilot in the Strategic Air Command. In 1958, he concluded his military service as a captain. And in 1961, George earned his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Judge George was admitted to the Nevada Bar in 1961 and began practice in Las Vegas. After 11 years in practice, he began on the path to Chief Judge: In 1974, he was appointed by the Ninth Circuit to preside over the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada for a term of fourteen years. In 1980, Lloyd became a member of the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panels and in 1984, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. On July 15,1992, George was elevated to Chief Judge of the Nevada District. During his tenure on the bench, Chief Judge George held a variety of distinguished memberships. He was a board member on the Federal Judicial Center, a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, the Chair of the Judicial Advisory for Bankruptcy Rules, the Chair of the Judicial Committee on Administration of Bankruptcy System, a Fellow at the American College of Bankruptcy, and a member of the Judicial Committee on International Judicial Relations. Judge Lloyd George is a highly respected figure in Southern Nevada and has given us a truly intriguing interview.
Las Vegas Mayor Oran K. Gragson (left) appears to be giving the key to the city to actor James Garner. Oran Kenneth Gragson (February 14, 1911 – October 7, 2002) was an American businessman and politician. He was the longest-serving mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada, from 1959 to 1975. Gragson, a member of the Republican Party, was a small business owner who was elected Mayor on a reform platform against police corruption and for equal opportunity for people of all socio-economic and racial categories. Gragson died in a Las Vegas hospice on October 7, 2002, at the age of 91. The Oran K. Gragson Elementary School located at 555 N. Honolulu Street, Las Vegas, NV 89110 was named in his honor. James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor, voice artist, singer, producer, and comedian. He starred in several television series over more than five decades, including such popular roles as Bret Maverick in the 1950s western comedy series Maverick and Jim Rockford in the 1970s detective comedic drama series The Rockford Files,[2] and played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen, Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964), Grand Prix (1966), Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria (1982), Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, Space Cowboys (2000) with Clint Eastwood, and The Notebook (2004).
Oral history interviews with June Monroe and Kazuko Atomura conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on July 14 and July 19, 2022 for Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In the first interview, Kazuko Atomura describes her childhood in Taiwan and Tokyo, Japan, and shares both happy and difficult mememories of that time. Atomura eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, where she reconnected with a man she previously met in Japan. She married him and together had their daughter, June Monroe, and another son while living in Corpus Christi, Texas. After difficult medical procedures involving Atomura's husband and Monroe's younger brother, Brian, the family relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. Monroe recalls attending Las Vegas High School and Bonanza High School, and the struggle of making new friends as a young person. In the second interview, the mother and daughter discuss racism, discrimination, and identity. Kazuko Atomura recalls her many experiences with discrimination as a result of both her appearance and language barriers. June Monroe discusses how she came to be proud of her Japanese heritage, while Atomura discusses some of the community activities she has been involved in since living in Las Vegas including the Japanese Culture Club and odori dancing. Then, both Atomura and Monroe discuss Monroe's brother, Brian, who received two kidney transplants; one from Monroe's father and one from Monroe herself. Atomura talks about the shrines she has built for Brian, the experience of him being on dialysis, care taking, and his final days. Monroe shares about her activism with organ donation, being regularly involved with the Nevada Donor Network and helping to pass significant pieces of legislation within the area of organ donation.
In 1943, Cleophis Hill Williams was a teenager visiting her mother who had moved to Las Vegas. For most of her young life she had lived with her parents in Muskogee, Oklahoma and Paul Spur/Douglas, Arizona. The same year that she visited Las Vegas, she met her future husband Tom Williams, with whom she had nine children, all born and raised on the Westside. Tom worked construction and built their first home on G Street. For Cleophis, she focused her life on raising her children and, whenever possible, finding some precious time to read.
The Elizabeth and Charles Pratt Personal Papers consist of correspondence, travel information, and photographs from the Pratt family dating from 1895 to 1953. The majority of correspondence in the collection is between Charles Pratt and his wife, Alice Elizabeth Margaret "Diane" Pratt. The collection also contains correspondence between Elizabeth Pratt's parents and her literary journals from her time attending Swarthmore College, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.
The Jeff Gale Photographs (approximately 1992-2001) primarily contain aerial images of the Las Vegas Strip taken from the Stratosphere Tower and other locations around the city that were shot by Las Vegas, Nevada photographer Jeff Gale. Materials include images of the Sam's Town 300 NASCAR race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway as well as images of the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead Recreation Area. The collection also includes what may be personal family photographs taken around various locations around southern Nevada and the southwest region.