Alice Ward Boyer arrived in Las Vegas from Oklahoma in 1937. Her brother and former husband came earlier to escape the dustbowl depression and get settled. In the middle of the summer, just at dusk, she emerged from the train at Kingman, Arizona with her two small children to meet her family and drive through the darkness to her new home in Las Vegas. Although she missed the trees of the Plains, she soon became accustomed to her desert home. Her recollections revive the older Las Vegas when community life characterized the small town. At the heart of her story is the Mesquite Club. The non-partisan civic activities of the Mesquite Club are part of a national history of women’s club voluntarism in the nineteenth and twentieth century United States. Founded in 1911, this pioneer Las Vegas women's club played an essential role in the development of the growing town. When few cultural or social services existed, the club raised funds for the first public library, developed parks for the city, and provided services and funding for the aged and youth. The Mesquite Club, along with the Parent Teacher Association, scouts, and church activities formed a network of community relations commonly found in developing towns and cities, but not ususally associated with Las Vegas. Alice Boyer joined the Mesquite club in 1944. She first served as the chair of the Garden Committee, then "went right up through the chairs," and was elected President of the club for 1958-59. (See Table of Offices Held). Speaking about the Mesquite Club founders, Alice Boyer said, “They were very forward-looking women. They knew that the town would grow and they wanted the best for the town.” As one of the second generation of members, she has found the club to be a continuing source of congenial social life and civic community building. Born in rural Oklahoma, she spent her early years on a ranch. Her parents met there shortly after "the run to open Oklahoma" around 1892. They met, married and had twelve children, nine of which survived. Alice came right in the middle. She spent her early years riding horses, wearing “overalls," and spending as much time as possible outside. The family moved into Clinton, Oklahoma for better schools for their children when she was in the fifth grade. Alice graduated from high school just as the Great Depression began and worked briefly at a newspaper before marriage. At the time of the interview, Alice Boyer’s vivaciousness, gracious manner, and sharp memory belied her 82 years. This interview has been produced with the assistance of the Mesquite Club and the History Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is part of a series on women community builders in Las Vegas. The transcript has been edited only slightly for clarity while the syntax and style of the narrator were retained.

In 1962, Elizabeth “Betty” Krolak moved from the Midwest to Las Vegas with her husband and six children. Not only would the drier desert climate benefit her youngest daughter’s health due to asthma, but the family hoped the Las Vegas economy would be beneficial for their future. Prior to her arrival in Las Vegas, Betty worked briefly as a secretary for the New York Central Railroad before becoming a stay-at-home mom and active member of the PTA. Upon their arrival in Las Vegas, Betty’s husband enrolled in a real estate class, but was unable to complete the program. Betty, not wanting to waste the $80 they had spent on the class, decided to attend in his place. This decision led to life changing events for Betty and her family over the next four decades. After taking the real estate class and passing the test, Betty became a licensed Nevada real estate broker in October of 1963. She initially went to work for Pyramid Realty and, in 1964, she opened her own office, Clark County Realty. After her divorce in 1967, Betty was left with “six hungry children” to feed and no child support or health insurance. She recalls how the benefits of being in real estate really became apparent during this period of her life. While real estate required long hours seven days a week, it also afforded a single mother flexibility that other careers would not have offered. Likewise, a woman could make more money in real estate in the 1960s and 1970s than most other careers provided, which was particularly important for Betty who was committed to raising her children without public assistance. Betty’s oral history chronicles the growth of the Las Vegas Board of Realtors which has grown into what today is the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR). She recalls how, in the 1960s, meetings took place in bowling allies and the primary role of the GLVAR was to provide networking opportunities and represent the Code of Ethics for realtors. However, the Board was dominated by males, with the role of women members confined to planning social events and arranging for refreshments. In 1968, Betty and several other women realtors set out to change this by initially establishing a local Women’s Council within the Board. In the years following, Betty became the first women to be an Executive Board Member. Today, more than half the members of the Executive Board are women. Betty’s oral history also speaks to many changes within the real estate industry over the past four decades, some positive and some not so positive. She recounts the 1960s to the 1980s, when casino workers’ main source of income came from tips which were often unreported, creating challenges in getting casino workers qualified for home loans because they did not have the ability to document their source of income. Likewise, single women had a hard time qualifying for home loans because they only had one income and, in those days, it rarely was enough to qualify for a mortgage on their own. Also during this period, realtors primarily focused on the resale market because builders wanted to work directly with buyers, but changes in the real estate market eventually led builders to realize the benefits of allowing realtors to sell new houses, too. During her career, Betty also experienced the rise of real estate franchises, beginning with Century 21’s arrival in Nevada, the development of Multiple Listing Service (MLS), changes to educational requirements, approaches to settling disputes, and new approaches to ethics violations. Perhaps the biggest change Betty’s oral history speaks to is the personal approach to selling real estate that has been lost over time. In the early days, brokers sold houses right alongside the sales agents. Today, however, regulations have placed brokers in a position where their primary role is to manage sales people, not sell houses. Also, realtors used to interact with other realtors, title company personnel, and mortgage lenders before technology, such as fax machines and computers, came along. In the early days, documents were transferred in person allowing people in the industry to get to know one another through these personal interactions. Today, everything is done electronically and it is rare to actually know the person on the other end. Selling real estate has lost a lot of its personal touch, according to Betty. In addition to being the mother of six children and running one of the largest real estate offices in the area, Betty also found time to give back to the community through her volunteer work with the Salvation Army. She was instrumental in establishing Southern Nevada’s Angel Tree project, which provides Christmas presents to children who otherwise would not receive them. She was also appointed by Governor Michael O’Callahan to the State of Nevada’s Real Estate Commission, making her the first woman to serve on the Commission. Betty’s career in real estate allowed her to witness and implement many changes that still impact the industry today. When Betty began her career, Las Vegas’ population was just over 45 thousand. By the mid-1990s Green Valley, Spring Valley, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, and Sun City had been developed and the Valley’s population exceeded 1 million people. Betty Krolak’s career merged with the real estate boom as she helped find homes for those who wanted to make Las Vegas their home. She made sure the real estate industry’s growth included women, training mechanisms, and ethics which continue to benefit realtors, home buyers, and home sellers to this day.

Liliam Lujan Hickey is best known in the state of Nevada for being the first Hispanic woman elected to the State Board of Education as well as for the enormous contributions she made while serving from 1998 to 2000. For this, an elementary school in Clark County bears her name. Despite many obstacles, Liliam has continually dedicated herself to standing up for the causes she believes in, such as providing preschool education to the underprivileged, preparing youth to enter the workforce, helping other Hispanics run for office, and proving that with enough courage anyone can accomplish their dreams. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1932, Liliam led a sheltered life that revolved mostly around her studies at a French Dominican school. She met her first husband, Enrique Lujan, when she was only sixteen and they wed soon after. Enrique was twelve years her senior, owned many casinos on the island, and provided a luxurious existence for Liliam and their three children. However, this lifestyle abruptly changed when Castro assumed power in 1959 and Liliam and her family were compelled to relocate to the United States. In Miami, Enrique assisted other refugees financially, hoping that his wealth would remain secure in Cuba. He was wrong. This left the family destitute. In addition to casinos, Enrique had been Cuba?s coach for the Olympics. He moved the family to York, Pennsylvania, where he hoped to find work at the York Barbell Company. Liliam, who had been accustomed to having maids and nannies in Cuba, found herself doing all the housework while she also worked in a factory. The change could not have been more dramatic and the living conditions became unbearable. The family chose to move to San Diego in a Volkswagen Minivan with the hope for a better life. The next few years brought many transitions. Things did turn around in San Diego, and Liliam she recalls her years in southern California as some of the happiest of her life. Liliam found a job working at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla. After a few years, Enrique found a job in Las Vegas and the family moved again. In Las Vegas, Liliam gave birth to her fourth child, Mary, and life once again became financially difficult for the family. In 1972, the situation grew worse with Enrique?s untimely death. Liliam was a widow at forty years of age. She had to teach herself how to drive a car, write checks, and perform financial tasks that Enrique had insisted on managing while he was alive. Determined not to give up, however, she worked tirelessly to keep the family together. Amidst all this, a friend introduced Liliam to Tom Hickey, and after a brief courtship they were married in 1981. Within a few years, Liliam became active in politics, running for the State Board of Education. Her campaign manager advised her that voters would not be receptive to photos of a Hispanic woman on billboards, and to capitalize on the name “Hickey,” which was a recognizable name because her husband was an assemblyman. She took the manager?s advice and was elected in that campaign and for two more terms, the maximum limit for the office. After the first race, she proudly displayed her face on billboards across the state. During her time at the State Board of Education, Liliam dedicated herself to helping all children receive a better education in Nevada, not only Hispanics. She co-founded the Classroom on Wheels [COW] program, which brought buses to poor neighborhoods to provide pre-school education. She established Career Day, which pairs high schools students with business professionals in an effort to help them make the transition into the workforce. While the COW program is no longer running, 8 Career Day still operates and awards scholarships in Liliam?s name annually, which helps youth receive the educational opportunities they need to succeed. And she involved Hispanic youth in Boy Scouts by bringing ScoutReach to the Las Vegas valley. Lujan Hickey worked in a wide array of other community organizations. In the 1970s, she began to work with Circulo Cubano, which later became the Latin Chamber of Commerce, and she would later belong to the National Chamber of Commerce. A longstanding member of the League of Women Voters, Liliam saw the need to get Hispanics more involved in politics in the state. Her story is one of great inspiration, and when asked why she does it, she simply replies with a smile, “I love life.” Hickey?s narrative offers the reader a glimpse of the experiences of the Cuban refugee experience in the U.S. in general. Specific to Las Vegas, it provides a rare story of the experiences of early Latinas in the political and economic development of Las Vegas in the last half of the twentieth century.

Nine photographs of members of the Mason Family with various friends throughout the years of 1969-2003.