Terry Miller-Newcomb was born at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her grandparents on both sides were Nevada residents, and her mother and father were born in Reno and McGill, respectively. Her younger sister Linda was born at Sunrise Hospital shortly after it opened. Terry vividly remembers the way Vegas was in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Las Vegas was very small in the '50s, and one of the town's boundaries was Tropicana Avenue. Beyond that was dirt road and desert. Terry and her sister and friends rode horses out in that area. Terry's father, Chub Drakulich, taught drafting and Phys Ed and coached the basketball team at Rancho High School from 1955 to 1958. Her mother, Theresa Drakulich, was hired at the new Ruby S. Thomas Elementary School to teach kindergarten. Terry attended kindergarten through second grades at Tom Williams, and from third grade on went to Ruby Thomas E.S. Her junior high school years were spent at Orr Middle School, and she attended Valley High School through graduation. "Chub" Drakulich was hired at Southern Nevada University (now UNLV) in 1958 to start the Phys Ed program there. Terry remembers Frazier Hall and the old gym where she played on the gymnastics equipment while her father conducted basketball practice. Her parents would host a party every Christmas as part of the basketball Holiday Classic program. Terry chose to attend UNR after she graduated high school in 1974. She was hired at R&R Advertising in the summer of '78 and worked at the Reno office for two years. She then transferred to the Las Vegas office to work as account executive. She oversaw all advertising for Democrat and Republican campaigns, including road signs, radio and TV spots, and billboards. Between 1984 and 1987 Terry made several major changes in her life. She started a master's program in a totally new area, worked as a church administrator for an income, and was remarried. She finished her master's in 1987 and opened a private practice in marriage and family therapy in 1988, which she continues with today. Her oldest daughter is currently enrolled at UNLV on the Millennium Scholarship.

Betty Blevins was born in the small town of Berry, Alabama. She graduated from high school there in 1953 and then went on to nurses' training at the University of Alabama School of Nursing in Birmingham. She recalls the segregated wards, emergency rooms, and drinking fountains at the university hospital when she worked there in the fifties and early sixties. Betty's husband was hired at the Nevada Test Site as a journeyman electrician in 1963 and they moved to Las Vegas with their two children. Betty remembers living near Desert Inn Road and the Boulder Highway and taking her two older daughters to the Huntridge Theater on Charleston and Maryland Parkway, where they could see a movie and buy treats for fifty cents apiece. When Betty started working in Las Vegas as a nurse, there were only two hospitals, Sunrise and the old Memorial Hospital (now UMC). She was hired at Sunrise Hospital and describes the layout, recalls some of the surgeons she worked with, and offers up anecdotes of life in the O.R. Her third daughter was born at Sunrise as well. Betty eventually worked at Memorial and Valley View Hospitals, and ended up back at Sunrise. She recalls assisting during the first open-heart surgery with Dr. Ficus and the first corneal transplant with Dr. Shearing. Ms. Blevins describes the monumental changes in operating techniques and surgeon education, the installation of telephones in the O.R., the introduction of disposable sterile equipment, and the advent of computers and lasers. She recalls the first kidney harvest in which she participated, and shares examples of the humor that could be found in the hospital. She retired in the eighties and looks back on her long career with satisfaction.

Narrator affiliation: Biologist, U.S. Navy