Marriage certificate of Helen and Frank Stewart and Tiza Stewart land patents

Oral history interview with Jean Munson conducted by Vanessa Concepcion, Cecilia Winchell, and Stefani Evans on November 30, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Jean discusses her childhood growing up in Guam, the nursing career path of her parents, and her decision to pursue an "unconventional path" as a comic book artist. She talks about her education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, her passion for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community within Las Vegas, and her roles in community activism and leadership. Jean also shares her current pursuits as a podcaster of Bruha Baddies, co-owner and printer of Plot Twist Publishing, and co-founder of the Comic and Zines Festival.

The Kim Sisters, composed of three sisters, Sook-ja, Ai-ja, and Mia, came from Korea to Las Vegas in February 1959. Their first contract in America was to perform at the Thunderbird Hotel for four weeks as part of the China Doll Revue, the main showroom program. This engagement led to a successful career. Their popularity reached was at its height at the end of the 1960s when they performed throughout the United States and Europe. Sook-ja Kim is the oldest of the sisters. After his sister Ai-ja died in 1987, Sook-ja teamed up with her two brothers and continued to perform until 1989. Now semi-retired from show business, with occasional performances in Korea, she is working as a real estate agent. In this interview, she talked about her childhood, her career, and the family she has built since coming to America. Sook-ja was born in 1941 in Seoul, Korea as the third child of seven in a musical family. Her father was a conductor and her mother, a popular singer. After the Korean War, her mother arranged to send the Kim Sisters to America. When they came to Las Vegas, there were virtually no Koreans in the area. They depended on each other to take care of themselves. Some of the difficulties they had to adjust to in American were language, food, and cultural differences. Over the span of almost forty years in America, Sook-ja became acculturated without discarding her ethnic identity of family priorities. Her life-long guiding principle has been to adopt certain American values while continuing to keep her cherished Korean ethnic values. Through their performances, the Kim Sister informed the audience about Koreans and their culture. As the oldest of the group, Sook-ja was entrusted the care of her sisters, and later her brothers, the Kim brothers. Once she settled in Las Vegas, she brought more than forty members of her extended family to the city, contributing to the growth of the Las Vegas Korean community.