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Betty Pomeroy oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Betty Pomeroy conducted by Jackie Ogden on March 23, 1976 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In this interview, Pomeroy discusses her personal history, education in Las Vegas, Nevada, and labor unions. She then describes Nevada politics, specifically being active with political campaigns. Later, Pomeroy discusses gambling and its significance to the Las Vegas economy, along with the consequences that come with gambling. Lastly, Pomeroy recalls social life, recreational activities, and her employment in the hospitality industry.
Archival Collection
Helen Daseler oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Helen Daseler conducted by Claytee D. White on October 09, 2007 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Daseler discusses mining work in Colorado, living in Europe, working for the United States government, and opening the Las Vegas Day School.
Archival Collection
William Hanson oral history interview
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Oral history interview with William Hanson conducted by Randy Martin on March 05, 1979 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In his interview Hanson discusses Las Vegas, Nevada history, Howard Hughes, African Americans in Las Vegas, social classes, and hotel entertainment.
Archival Collection
Helen Mortenson oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Helen Mortenson conducted by Claytee D. White on May 06, 2014 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Mortenson discusses Cygnus Scientific, a consultation firm specializing in nuclear, radiological, and environmental issues. She goes on to describe the Ice Age Park Foundation, managing her husband’s political campaign, and her archaeological pursuits. Later, Mortenson discusses her discovery of a Shasta ground sloth at Devils Peak, Nevada in 1990.
Archival Collection
Ethel Matteucci oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Ethel Matteucci conducted by Tom Matteucci on March 10, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Ethel talks about being chased out of Mexico for being Mormon colonizers and later arriving to Nevada. Ethel later talks about the first casinos that were built in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection
Joan Johnson oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Joan Johnson conducted by Kim Geary on March 25, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Johnson discusses her personal history and her reasons for originally moving to Las Vegas, Nevada. Johnson recalls early Las Vegas entertainment, as well as the development of businesses and their unions.
Archival Collection
Elmer Grayson oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Elmer Grayson conducted by Keith Baldwin on March 09, 1979 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Grayson discusses atomic testing, education, the Old Frontier Casinos, and African-American entertainers in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection
John Grayson oral history interview
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Oral history interview with John Grayson conducted by Elizabeth N. Patrick on May 23, 1983 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. The interview covers Grayson’s experience with gaming in Arizona, California, and Nevada. Also present during John Grayson’s interview is Billy H. Gray, a longtime gaming associate of his, who helps Grayson go into greater detail about key events.
Archival Collection
Claytee D. White oral history interview
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Oral history interview with Claytee D. White conducted by Stefani Evans on November 2, 2023 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Claytee D. White, founding directory of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries, celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the OHRC by contributing her oral history to the collection.
She begins by explaining how the system of sharecropping worked in her family near rural Ahoskie, North Carolina, and she talks about the field work involved in raising cotton, tobacco, corn, and peanuts. The fifth of eight children and the first daughter, she shares memories of going into town with her mother, of admiring her women teachers, and of attending North Carolina Central College (now University) for two years before moving to Washington, D.C., and working for the telephone company.
After recalling her two years in D.C. and 22 years in Los Angeles, California, she describes "running away" to Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1990s. Here, at the History department at UNLV, she recalls learning to conduct oral histories. White shares memories of her first interviews with Hazel and Jimmy Gay and Lucille Bryant. She talks of matriculating to the College of William and Mary for her PhD and of returning to Bertie County to live with her mother and administer the office of The Shaw University Center for Alternative Programs in Education (CAPE). She describes how she was offered the position of OHRC founding director, why it matters that she was an "opportunity hire," and how it feels to be the only Black person in a room.
Archival Collection
LaVerne A. Reid oral history interview
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Oral history interview with LaVerne A. Reid conducted by her daughter, Nancy Ann Reid, on March 13, 1978 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. In this interview, Reid describes her early life living in Bunkerville, Nevada and the town's history.
Archival Collection