Richard "Dick" Blackburn Taylor was a prominent businessman in Las Vegas, Nevada and amateur historian of Southern Nevada. Taylor was born on January 31, 1929 in Quincy, Illinois and grew up in Glendale, California. After graduating high school in 1947, he attended Washington and Lee University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Hawaii. He served in the 4th Infantry Division of the United States Army in Germany during the occupation following WWII. In 1957, he married Charlene Flora Belknap and they had four children.
Judy Bayley moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband Warren "Doc" Bayley in 1956. Doc Bayley opened the Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada later that year as part of his Hacienda Hotel chain that began in California. When he died in 1964, Judy Bayley took over the company and became chairwoman of Casino Operations, Inc.