The Champo family, Jacinta and Manuel Champo and their daughter Stella came from Italy to Las Vegas in 1912. They lived in a room at the Union Hotel, which was located at Main and Bridger. In 1917, the Champo family bought a small ranch located about three miles south of what is Henderson today. Manuel grew fruits and vegetables at the ranch and sold them in town door to door. Stella began her education at Las Vegas Grammar School at Fourth and Bridger in 1918 and started babysitting for many of the local women when she was only ten years old. Jacinta’s death in 1927 was hard on both Stella and Manuel. Stella decided not to finish her education. Maude Frazier, who was the principal at the High School, tried to persuade Stella to stay at school. However, Stella had no more interest in school and at eighteen years old she started her career as a waitress. Her first job was at a small Italian restaurant at the Union Hotel where she learned the business. She worked as a waitress and cashier and when P.O. Silvagni opened the Apache Hotel at Second and Fremont she went to work there. Stella continued to work at the Apache until she moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a waitress for eighteen years. Stella had married John Iaconis in 1953 and they moved back to Las Vegas. Both John and Stella went to work at the Sahara Hotel. Stella was a showroom waitress and John was a tailor with his own valet shop in the Sahara Hotel. Stella worked in a showroom at Sahara for three years because it was physically demanding work. Stella went to work at Larry’s where she stayed for twenty years. Stella continued to live in Las Vegas until her death on January 18, 1998 . She was happily retired and always remembered the past and the lessons she learned from her hard work. Stella was a very optimistic and totally self-reliant woman.

Anna Peltier, owner and founder of ARIA Landscape Architecture in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a transplanted farm girl and a musician. She was born in 1978 on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Escanaba, Michigan, where she and two brothers were the second generation to grow up on their parents’ (and formerly their grandparents’) farm. She studied music performance at Michigan State University but after discovering her love of landscape architecture early in her college career, she changed majors and earned her degree in landscape architecture. Moving to Las Vegas in 2007, she first worked for JW Zunino Landscape Architects. While with Zunino she did design work for Lorenzi Park and designed the award-winning Cactus Avenue Interchange. As ARIA’s principal designer, Anna designed Discovery Park in Pahrump, Nevada, and the USA Parkway between Lake Tahoe, California, and Reno, Nevada. In 2013, when Anna opened ARIA, she carefully chose the name of her business. First, for practical reasons she want

On March 1st, 1981, Glorialyn Gutierrez interviewed Emily McKinley (b. April 28, 1930 in Las Vegas, Nevada) about her life in the Las Vegas Valley. McKinley begins by speaking about her childhood, her siblings and her extended family. McKinley gives a variety of anecdotes about being raised in Las Vegas, her family’s economic hardships and the house she grew up in. Lastly, McKinley talks about the businesses she owned with her husband, their hardships and her time working multiple jobs.

Patricia Mulroy served Las Vegas as the general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District from 1989 to 2014. She served the state of Nevada as the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority from 1993 to 2014. Patricia helped to build the Authority, and saw the state through the devastating drought of the Colorado River. Patricia was born in Frankfurt, Germany on February 24, 1953. As a young girl, she lived in several different countries, but always felt that the United States was her home. Her experiences abroad led her to develop a fascination with government work and state service. She arrived in Nevada in 1974 to attend UNLV. In 1989, Patricia became the general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District. She entered the field at a tumultuous time, facing the drought of the Colorado River and tension within the districts. She pioneered the Water Authority, which revolutionized southern Nevada’s water rights system and allowed the districts to deal with the is

S. Charles Snavely, a long-time Las Vegas pediatrician, arrived in Nevada in 1965 with his wife, Ann, and two children courtesy of the United States Air Force. The family lived at Nellis Air Force Base while Charlie completed his Barry Plan commitment to the military. In separate interviews, Charlie and Ann discuss their arrival in Las Vegas, their first house in the Glen Heather area of Ward 1, and their current house in the Scotch 80s (pictured above). Charlie and Ann met at a small private hospital in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where Ann was working as a nurse. The two University of Pennsylvania graduates, now married 63 years, raised their children in their Scotch 80s house and so far have not been tempted to move elsewhere.

In the interviews, Tilman discusses his birth in Gooding, Idaho in 1913, his early life, and his arrival to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1931. Tilman then talks about his experiences mining, milling, and ranching before moving to Las Vegas. While in Las Vegas, Tilman was involved with construction of Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) and labor issues. Later, Tilman describes fishing and boating in the Colorado River, working at a duplex mine in Searchlight, Nevada, and working at the Las Vegas Ice House. Lastly, Tilman talks about influential Boulder City residents he knew, his children, and the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino.

Cathie and Chris Millson moved to Las Vegas with their one-year-old daughter, Nicole, in 1984 following Chris’s completion of a cardio-thoracic anesthesiology fellowship in Atlanta, Georgia. Their two other children were born in Las Vegas. Shortly after they arrived they purchased the Rancho Bel Air house where they currently reside. Cathie talks about raising her children and living in Rancho Bel Air, a gated neighborhood of custom houses, which grew to maturity after the Millsons moved in. Cathie’s memories chronicle the growth of Las Vegas from small town to large city, how a certain segment of the population lived and entertained, and how downtown revitalization has brought young people back to Rancho Bel Air to raise their families.