Patty Ann Drew’s life experiences capture large movements in Las Vegas history: mob-dominated gambling, the Helldorado Rodeo, explosive growth, medical advances, and Clark County School District’s Sixth Grade Centers—all in a desert city centered in the Mormon Culture Region. Patty arrived in Las Vegas as an infant with her parents and older brothers in 1944 and was raised in the Huntridge area, where she and her brothers attended John S. Park Elementary School and matriculated from there to Las Vegas High School. In this interview, Patty talks about her parents working on the Strip, her school days, joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, marrying her high school sweetheart, and becoming a young mother in Las Vegas. After Patty married her second husband, Thomas Ross, the couple built a house west of Jones Boulevard and Patty gave birth to her third son. In addition, she returned to school to earn her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and taught at C. H. Decker Elementary School for twenty years.
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Biography, essay and poem written and compiled by Raymonde Fiol, titled Pieces of My Life.
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Discussion of the feasibility of bringing water from Lake Mead to Las Vegas. Pittman is an older name for the city of Henderson. Whitney is an older name for East Las Vegas.
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On October 18, 1974, James M. Greene interviewed news editor, Lorna Kesterson (born December 30th, 1925 in St. George, Utah) in her office in Henderson, Nevada. The two discuss Kesterson’s work in news editing as well as her original reasons for moving to Nevada. They also discuss teenage social life of Boulder city, during the 1940s.
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In this essay, Jerry Countess provides narrative context for a demographic study of the Jewish population in Las Vegas, and addresses the services and community needs revealed by the study and the growing Jewish population.
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