Foxhunting may be the Sport of Kings but was also found among the elite in Michigan. In the early 1960s when Jeanne Williams married Ed Wilson, son of Charles Wilson, President of General Motors, she learned the art of riding to the hounds. She left that life for Las Vegas in 1965. During the heyday of Las Vegas, Williams reared her daughter, Christine, on the Desert Inn Country Club working as an artist and sculptor. The Summa Corporation’s job as Women’s Events Coordinator wooed her. She kept the wives of golfers busy with luncheons featuring speakers like Ann Landers and David Frost. These women were also treated to fabulous gifts including designer purses. But soon Williams was swept off her feet by Jack Kent Cooke, one-time owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. She moved with him to Virginia where her art suffered. Jeanne’s return to Las Vegas allowed her artistic canvas to expand with commissions from the town’s movers and shakers. This time, home was the Sahara Country Club and then in 1994, the Canyon Gate Country Club. Those homes gave her space for her art. Her artistry and skill as a sculptor were keenly honed during this period as she joined the prestigious Desert Sculptors Association and the illustrious Las Vegas Watercolor Society. Actress, singer, dancer, painter, sculptor Jeanne Maxwell Williams helped to start the arts movement in Las Vegas.

Will Provance was born in Mississippi and grew up mostly in St. Louis, where he earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri before earning a Master’s in Business Administration from Shiller University. Provance would eventually attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he earned a Master of Science in Hotel Administration. He started in the gaming industry as a pool manager at Sunset Station, where he would eventually become slot analyst before entering Station Casinos’ management development program. Provance then trained in various positions at Red Rock Resort prior to moving to Green Valley Ranch as a shift manager. He then went back to Sunset Station to become slot operations manager and was promoted to director of slots at that property. Provance is currently the director of VLT operations at Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park in Northfield, Ohio. Provance’s interview begins with his discussion of the various roles he has held in the gaming industry, including the types of duties he was assigned at the different properties. He then describes the difference between managing slot machines in his earlier positions and video lottery terminals (VLTs) in his current position in Ohio. Provance then mentions some of the mentors he has had in his career, and he describes what he believes are the qualities of both good and bad slot managers. He also discusses what he believes makes a good slot floor, including the process of working with slot vendors in getting new slot machines for the slot floor as well as working with other departments in the casino. Provance then talks about how slot operations has changed since he started in the industry and what he thinks the future of slot machines will be, specifically regarding skill-based gaming. The interview concludes with Provance’s discussion of his personal gambling and his advice to young people who want to go into the slot industry.

David Bartlett’s Nevada roots run far and deep. He was born in Las Vegas in 1940, his family moved to Reno when David was in grade school. A great joy was for him to return to Las Vegas and spend time with both sets of grandparents: David and Julia Lorenzi (maternal) and Byron and Dessa Bartlett (paternal). In local history, both families represent the early entrepreneurship and craftsmanship of residents: from the Bartlett Brothers Hardware to Grandfather Lorenzi’s stonework that still graces such landmarks as the grottos at St. Joan of Arc Catholic church and at Bishop Gorman High School. Of particular note is that David’s grandfather, David Lorenzi, envisioned the recreational park known as Lorenzi Park and is located in the Twin Lakes area of Las Vegas. Today David is retired from a long career in auto/truck sales. He lives in Las Vegas and is active in several community organizations including the Elks Lodge and Three Square.

World War II Naval officer, outdoors man, viola player John Watkins arrived in Las Vegas in 1955 fresh from his fellowship at UCLA, as the town’s first urologist. In this interview made two years before his 2011 death, Watkins talks about his schooling, his medical career, and medicine and medical practitioners in Las Vegas from the mid-1950s. He recalls how he met his wife, Frances (née) O’Rourke, and the Las Vegas places he, Frances, and their sons John and Brian lived. In particular, he describes their Desert Inn Country Club neighbors and neighborhood, where he and his family lived for fourteen years near the third tee. Watkins talks about his musical education and playing the viola in Antonio Morelli’s Christmas concerts. He also shares his experiences as a mountain climber who climbed Mount Charleston several times before deciding in his seventies to climb the highest peak in each of the fifty states. By the time of this interview, he and his son Brian had conquered forty-three state peaks. According to his obituary, he completed one more climb before he died at ninety years of age, for a total of forty-four highest state peaks. In an Appendix, Watkins shares his detailed wartime journal covering nine “terrible days” on a U.S. Naval ship in an undisclosed battle zone in the Pacific Theatre, 28 December 1944 – 6 January 1945.

Linda Falba McSweeney’s memories read like a Las Vegas history book. Arriving in town as a five-year-old in 1950, Linda’s family lived in the Huntridge area of town. Her father was a casino manager in various properties Downtown and on the Strip and even worked in Cuba during the Batista era. She and her two siblings attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School, St. Anne’s School, and Bishop Gorman High School. They marched in the city’s Helldorado Parades, and she was a BGHS cheerleader. Through it all their parents (even Dad, who worked graveyard shifts and seldom took a day off) enthusiastically supported all their endeavors and attended all their events. Linda tells of playing at Maryland Parkway’s circle park and earning a black eye from the cutest boy in the neighborhood; she recalls making forts in the bamboo forest near Fifteenth Street and Oakey Boulevard (until two schoolmates, who didn’t know how to stub out their illicit cigarettes, burned the bamboo forest down). Linda knows most of Nevada’s movers and shakers because she played with them or with their children.

Pamela and Steve Grogan met via Match-dot-com and married in 2004. They purchased a house in Scotch 80s with its own colorful history and enough storage for Pam’s extensive collections of cookbooks and cooking supplies. In Scotch 80s Pam has made a name for herself as a cook and hostess, and Steve serves as president of the Scotch 80s Owners Association. In this interview, the couple discuss their house, their neighborhood, urban pressures, and methods of maintaining atmosphere and traffic flow in a neighborhood they have grown to love. Pam moved to Las Vegas from Lockport, Illinois, with some friends in 1999. She had sparked her passion for cooking and cookbooks in Illinois, and in Las Vegas she developed both interests further when she began working as assistant manager for Sur La Table cooking store on the Las Vegas Strip. Steve became interested in Las Vegas after he advised the campaign committee to pass legalized gambling in Colorado and became the first executive director of the Colorado Gaming Owners Association. He left Denver for Las Vegas in 1989 after pursuing successful political and entrepreneurial careers in his former city.