Search Results
Transcript of interview with Thalia Dondero by Claytee D. White, March 6, 2014 and April 2, 2014
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Text
Transcript of interview with Jackie MacFarlane by Claytee White, February 4, 2010
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Jacqueline "Jackie" Tilman MacFarlane was born in her grandmother's Las Vegas home at H Street and Clark Ave. Her father John Franklin Tilman was a construction worker at Boulder Dam (now Hoover) in early 1930s. Jackie recalls her family having to move several times the Great Depression and living in rural Nevada. Eventually the family came back to reside in Las Vegas. After graduating from high school, she took a waitress job at the Spot Cafe (Main & Charleston) and then at the Askew Drive-In. It was there that she met her future husband, David MacFarlane, an Air Force cadet. David continued to work at Nellis Air force Base as a civilian until he retired in 1987. Jackie describes raising her children in Fair Circle neighborhood during the 1950s and 1960s; a time when Las Vegas was just a "small town of 50,000." She felt safe and always found work in the casinos. Her work career included being a change girl at the Mint of Fremont St. and working as the front office cashier at the Desert Inn and then working at the Sands Hotel and Casino. Eventually she became a night auditor at Sands Hotel and Casino and then at Sahara Hotel and Casino from 1970-1977. She remembers working nightshift, coming home to get the kids and husband off to school and work. After leaving Sahara, she began selling Vanda cosmetics as a home business, something she still does today.
Text
Transcript of interview with Della Mae Rostine by Irene Rostine, October 31, 1991
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Della Mae Rostine left Missouri with her husband, Rocco, in 1942, and headed to Las Vegas. Happy to leave behind the hard life and instability the mining industry had to offer, after living in Las Vegas for the first year the couple settled in Henderson, Nevada, known as the townsite at that time. Della Mae’s oral history provides readers with a glimpse of what life was like for the 14,000-plus individuals and families who also moved to southern Nevada during the same period in order to make a living in the growing “war work” industry the area had to offer. Della Mae shares the hardships faced in finding housing, especially for families with children. She discusses challenges ranging from securing home furnishings to purchasing groceries, including the rations on gasoline and butter at that time. Della Mae also discusses her experiences with the Basic Magnesium plant where her husband was hired as a construction worker in the early days of the plant and where she would work briefly as a machinist making shell casings and monitoring the down time on the production line. She also touches briefly on the social opportunities the BMI plant, and later Rheem Manufacturing, offered to the workers and their families. When World War II ended, more than half of residents of the townsite left, leaving fewer than 7,000 people to form what would later become the city of Henderson, Nevada. Della Mae’s oral history is a brief overview of a family life which began when BMI was just getting off the ground and continued through the many changes that took place in the BMI complex and the town site over several decades. The timing of the Rostine family’s arrival and the fact that they stayed and made a permanent home in Henderson led to their designation as one of Henderson’s “founding families.”
Text
Transcript of interview with Kay C. Dwyer by Claytee D. White, August 16, 2000
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Text
The Wheel of Rotary Las Vegas Rotary Club newsletter, March 2, 1950
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Text
Letter from Frank Strong (Los Angeles) to G. F. Ashby, November 7, 1944
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Meeting on water in Las Vegas. Discussion included the decline in water pressure throughout the valley, watershed recharge, BMI Water, a possible water district, well drilling, and more.
Text
Transcript of interview with Don Eckert by Robert A. Kamp, March 15, 1981
Date
Archival Collection
Description
On March 15, 1981, Robert A. Kamp interviewed Donald (Don) L. Eckert (born 1953 in Las Vegas, Nevada) about his experiences while living in Nevada. Eckert first explains the geographical boundaries of Las Vegas when he was first born and the types of recreation in which both youth and adults would take part. Eckert then discusses the Helldorado events and how they have changed over the years before describing how the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has changed as well. The interview then shifts to the topic of Eckert’s college major, hotel management, and then to a brief discussion about the MGM fire. Eckert also talks about horse racing in Las Vegas, changes in gaming, the Basic Magnesium plant, and the development of Mount Charleston. The interview concludes with Eckert’s thoughts on the legalization of gambling in other states and how that trend relates to the future of Las Vegas.
Text
"The Invisible People: Even In Disaster": article draft by Roosevelt Fitzgerald
Date
Archival Collection
Description
From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Drafts for the Las Vegas Sentinel Voice file. On the 1988 PEPCON explosion in Henderson, Nevada.
Text
Letter from Walter R. Bracken (Las Vegas) to W. M. Jeffers (Omaha) May 20, 1942
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Bracken's response to Jeffers who had asked about accounting problems. Las Vegas was undergoing a massive boom, and the urban growth represented the difference in numbers.
Text
