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Meeting called to discuss the best ways to control flooding in Southern Nevada.
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Oral history interview with Beryl Warren conducted by Claytee D. White on June 21, 2016 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. Warren begins her interview by describing her early life in Mobile, Alabama in the 1940s and 1950s. She then discusses her young adult life in California as a telephone operator. Warren then talks about her marriages, her education at St. Dominguez College in California, and working for Motown Records as production assistant. Warren then discusses her husband, Mark Warren, a prominent African American television producer and director. She explains that she came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1993 when Mark wanted to buy a vacation home in the area. She then talks about how during the 1990s the couple had jobs in Las Vegas, but also commuted to work in Los Angeles on occasion, until her husband's death in 1999. She then describes how family tragedy led to her raising her grandchildren, and also take on some hobbies, such as gardening, in order to live an active lifestyle. Warren then discusses her life with her husband and her fondness for him, and having to teach her grandsons to be cautious around police while raising them in Las Vegas. Lastly, she recalls her community work and her service organization, Southern Nevada Collation of Concerned Women (SNCCW).
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Robert “Bob” Agonia (1938- ) was born in Garden Grove, California on a migrant camp made up of Filipino and Mexican-American workers. Agonia’s father was a farmer on a 70 acre farm owned by the Beggs family. Agonia did not spend much time living on the migrant camp, as his father moved the family to a private residence when Agonia was four. Agonia attended school, during an era of school desegregation in Garden Grove. He recalls that his mother dealt with segregation during her schooling, being forced to attend a school miles down the road from her home despite living across the street from another school. Agonia recalls his community being very diverse with families sharing Filipino and Mexican-American heritage and his neighbors being Japanese Americans. Agonia participated in a multicultural Boy Scout troop. After high school, Agonia joined the Peace Corps and served in El Salvador. While there, Agonia worked in an agricultural research center in Santa Tecla where he helped local farmers select the proper insecticide for their crops. After the Peace Corps, Agonia had his choice of government jobs, ultimately selecting to work for the Internal Revenue Service. Agonia’s work with the IRS is what eventually brought him from California to Las Vegas. He quickly realized that the type of IRS cases he would be handling in Las Vegas were completely different from the work he was accustomed to in California. One of those unique cases required him to close the doors of a downtown casino. Since moving to Las Vegas, Agonia was critical in establishing a Las Vegas LULAC chapter, an American GI Forum, an EEO council, and the UNLV Engineering school.
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