On November 3, 1978, Jane P. Kowalewski interviewed Mazie Martin Jones (born in Las Vegas, Nevada) about her father, Doctor Roy Martin, the first doctor to own a private practice in Las Vegas. Jones explains how her father first arrived in Nevada and his different investments in real estate, hospitals, and hotels. She goes on to explain her father’s hotel pursuits after retiring from medicine in the late forties.
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Dr. Fiona Kelley was born and raised in Connecticut. Her parents were both teachers (though her mother quit teaching to raise their two daughters), and Fiona recalls the European vacations the family took every summer, exploring castles and enjoying picnic lunches. Fiona was educated at Greenwich Academy in Connecticut and Bard College (dance major with art history minor) in New York. She mentions dancing in Acapulco and California and then auditioning and being hired as a cover dancer for Hallelujah Hollywood! at the MGM in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, she had also become licensed in massage and states that as she was making the transition from dancing to production of dance, she and her husband were invited to China. While in China, Dr. Kelley recalls visiting a hospital which specialized in the treatment of AIDS through acupuncture. This led to a decision to learn Oriental medicine, which she pursued once she returned to the United States. She shares many details of her studies
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Jan Kennedy was born (1924) Janet Parmelee, the daughter of a Connecticut physician and a homemaker. In high school she met Norman Kennedy, who she would marry after both had attended college and to whom she was married for 64 years. Until 1963, their roots seemed to be taking hold in the Seattle area. That is until Norm was offered an attractive career opportunity as a weather man at the Nevada Test Site. They settled in and enjoyed a zest-filled life with their four sons and a dynamic group of friends who they often entertained at their cabin in Mount Charleston. In addition, Jan managed to volunteer for a list of organizations including UMC Hospital/Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital; Clark County Museum Guild; Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary; church deacon; Assistance League; Red Hats—keeping herself ever busy and joyfully satisfied.
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Ann Lynch discusses her background - born in Kansas City, 1934; attended Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas; classes at Kansas University; a year in theater; director of PR at Evansville University. In 1959 she came to Las Vegas as director of the clubs at Nellis Air Force Base. Ann shares in depth on her parents and grandparents and on her family today, which includes a brother 14 years younger, her son, and a nephew. She describes Las Vegas in the early sixties, meeting her husband, and her duties as club manager at Nellis. She comments on becoming camp director for the Girl Scout program at Mount Charleston, which led to training scout leaders and board members. When Ann's son Edward went to kindergarten, she took on the PTA job of parliamentarian, then president of Ruth Fyfe ES PTA. She eventually became President of the Las Vegas Area Council, Nevada State PTA president, and finally national president of the PTA. The school named after her (Ann T. Lynch Elementary) has benefited from her other charity organizations. Because of her PTA involvement, Ann became very active in legislation in Washington, D.C., traveling to other countries to help activate parent involvement. She had also worked with Sunrise Hospital during this time and when she was relieved of some of her PTA duties, she helped found the Sunrise Hospital Children's Foundation and the Public Education Foundation. She details the many functions of both foundations. Ann comments on the lobbying she does in the Nevada legislature and in Washington, D.C., medical billing through Medicare and Medicaid, and the ongoing shortage of nurses nationwide. She offers opinions on unions for nurses and mentions robotic surgery, the stroke center, neonatal center, and breast cancer center as evidence of recent developments in medicine at Sunrise Hospital.
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Priscilla and Joe Scalley arrived in Las Vegas in 1972 with their two young daughters. Joe had just completed his residency in radiology and came to Las Vegas to practice at Sunrise Hospital, where he eventually became Southern Nevada’s first neuroradiologist. The couple took out two mortgages to buy their house at 2900 Justice Lane, in the Rancho Nevada Estates section of Ward 1. They were the second owners of the house, which had been built in 1967. In 1993, after their daughters had graduated from high school, the Scalleys sold the house and moved to Summerlin. Joe Scalley died in October 1994. After Joe died Priscilla became reacquainted with and married the father of one of her daughters’ childhood friends, Joel Jobst, who was also widowed. Joel was a nuclear physicist retired from the Nevada Test Site. Priscilla and Joel bought a vacation home in Montana, where they spent every summer. They celebrated 13 years of marriage before Joel passed in 2013. As a young mother Priscilla joined the West Charleston Elementary School Parent Teacher Association and eventually became president. She helped found the Friends of the Libraries when the Clark County Library District had only two libraries—Flamingo Library and West Charleston Library—and served as that group’s president. She also was active in Junior League of Las Vegas and was president 1983?84. In her early forties Priscilla became a travel agent, a career that kindled a passion for travel that still burns brightly. She also is interested in genealogy. Although she has traveled the world she yearns to take her daughters, sons in law, and grandchildren to Ireland, the land of her ancestors.
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In 1980, Sunrise Hospital was looking to provide specialized services for pediatrics. They recruited a young pediatric ophthalmologist named Dr. Kathleen Melanie Kahn Mahon. Intrigued by the opportunity to relocate to Las Vegas, Dr. Mahon became one of the first female pediatric ophthalmologists in the city. Dr. Mahon is a highly accomplished pediatric ophthalmologist: Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Fellow of the American Academy of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Medicine. Raised in Santa Fe, Dr. Mahon is the family historian and recalls parts of the family’s ancestral history through the generations. She speaks of her family’s Jewish immigration from Germany and Austria, and a deep historical legacy in New Mexico, which can be traced to the 1800s. As the Mahon family settled into southern Nevada, community involvement was a high priority for her. Among the local organizations that she devoted much of her time to were the Rotary Club, Ronald McDonald House, and Junior League. Dr. Mahon and her husband William were early members of Congregation Ner Tamid. She recalls both her and her son’s b’nai mitzvahs held at the synagogue. She includes anecdotes of enjoying Las Vegas -- stories that range from knowing respected banker Selma Bartlett to the famous Nat Hart from Caesars Palace.
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After serving as a nurse in World War II in Hawaii, Okinawa and Japan, Dorothy returned home to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She experienced a particularly bad winter and she set out for California but stopped in Las Vegas to visit the family of her traveling companion, a girlfriend from her home town. The girlfriend returned to Wisconsin and George applied for a nursing license and got it within three days. She never left. Dorothy met her husband while working the night shift at Clark County Hospital. He would come in regularly to assist his patients in the births of their babies. Their occupations and their service in World War II drew them together in a marriage that has lasted over fifty years. From 1949 to this interview in 2003, Dorothy George has seen Las Vegas grow from a town that she loved to a metropolitan area that is no longer as friendly. She reminisces about the Heldorado parades, family picnics at Mount Charleston, watching the cloud formed by the atomic bomb tests, raising six successful children, leading a Girl Scout Troop, and working in organizations to improve the social and civic life of Las Vegas.
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Joyce Marshall-Moore came to Las Vegas from Chicago in December of 1953. Only eight years old at the time, she clearly remembers the road trip with her father Royce (known as "Mousie"), her mother Agnes, and her two brothers. They left Chicago, where it was snowing, and arrived in Las Vegas on a cold snowy day! Joyce attended school at Sunrise Acres ES until eighth grade and then went to Rancho High School, graduating in 1962. She recalls that her father worked for a time at the El Rancho Vegas and that her mother found work at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. Agnes Marshall (nee Rasmussen) took her nurse's training in Buffalo, New York, and then worked at Buffalo General Hospital and Millard Fillmore Hospital. Later she joined the army and was stationed in Memphis, Tennessee, working at Kennedy General Hospital where she met Royce and married him. They moved to Chicago where she found work at Ravenswood Hospital. After their move to Las Vegas, Agnes was hired at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. She became disenchanted with nurse-patient interactions at the county hospital and found employment at Las Vegas Hospital. She worked there until 1976 and then was hired at Las Vegas Convalescent Center. Agnes followed her dreams and traveled during this period as well. Agnes worked with Doctors Lund, Allen, Woodbury, Sulvane, and Hardy, among others. Joyce recalls that Dr. Hardy, a cousin and look-alike to Oliver Hardy, was one of her mother's favorites. She shares anecdotes and memories of these and other doctors. Joyce remembers many aspects of her mother's life, including the fact that she took care of neighbors as well as her family and patients. She often worked double shifts and the pay was nominal, but she loved her job because of the relationships with her patients. Agnes passed away in 2006 at the ripe old age of 91.
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Joy Snyder, born and raised in Pennsylvania, is the daughter of Jean Dasinto and stepdaughter of Ray Hunt. Though she was raised thinking she was an only child, she shares that as an adult, she was contacted by an aunt who gave her information about an Austrian half-sister. The half-sister had tracked the family through WWII records on her biological father! Joy was raised in a very large extended Italian family (her maternal grandmother was first-generation Italian) and became the first in her family to attend college. She had decided early on that she wanted to be a nurse and chose to attend Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. She recounts memories of her earliest work there, which began the first week of school. After graduation from nursing school, Joy married her childhood sweetheart, William (Bill) Snyder. They made the move to Las Vegas in 1978 and Joy found work right away at Desert Springs Hospital. She worked there about six months and then took maternity leave after the birth of their second son. When she returned to work, it was at Sunrise Hospital (early 1979) in the newborn nursery. Joy comments on many aspects of her career, including the informal approach to health care, the effects of desert climate on mothers and newborns, and the changes she has seen at Sunrise Hospital. She also comments on adoption practices in Las Vegas, drug-addicted babies, and cultural attitudes that appear during the birthing process. Today Joy is retired and her husband Bill is close to retiring. They feel a strong connection to Las Vegas (Bill has a school named after him), but maintain a second home in New York for their trips back East to visit friends and family. They also keep up with various community activities, including book clubs and running clubs for the children at William Snyder Elementary School.
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Oral history interview with Yvanna Cancela conducted by Monserrath Hernández and Barbara Tabach on February 27, 2020 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Yvanna Cancela, Nevada State Senator, discusses her personal history growing up in Miami, Florida and her studies at Northwestern University. She talks of working for Senator Harry Reid's campaign in Las Vegas, which led to her organizing efforts for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. Yvanna recalls being appointed to the Nevada State Senate in 2016 as the first female state senate majority. In addition to fulfilling her duties as the Co-Majority Whip, she worked on the Joe Biden campaign and is the Executive Director of the Citizenship Project. After this interview was conducted, Yvanna received her Juris Doctorate from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Subjects discussed include: Miami, Florida; Nevada State Senate; The Citizenship Project.
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