Roger Bryan (born 1938 in Cedar City, Utah) is interviewed by Paul Murphy in his office about his experiences living in Las Vegas. Bryan, who was the principal of Harvey Dondero Elementary School at the time of the interview, mainly discusses his background in education and his experiences teaching at various schools around Southern Nevada. Bryan mentions several of the cities he lived in prior to coming to Las Vegas as well as the various parts of town he lived in after arriving. He also talks specifically about the schools he attended in Las Vegas, the superintendents in charge of the school district, the decisions he made while on the school board, some of his experiences in being a teacher and principal, the extent of vandalism in schools, and how the school district has changed over the years. Bryan additionally recalls the visits of political figures to Las Vegas, some of the developmental changes in Las Vegas over time, the role of the Mormon religion in his life, and the types of recreational activities he and his family took part in. Bryan finalizes the interview with a discussion of the most influential teachers he had when he was a student.
Jerry Tarkanian, legendary and formidable basketball coach, met his match the day he was called before student court at Fresno State College and had to face as one of his judges Lois Esther Huter. Lois, a no-nonsense military daughter, eventually agreed to date Tarkanian and to marry him. The City of Las Vegas got lucky when UNLV recruited Lois’s husband as basketball coach. After picking cotton in California’s Central Valley Lois earned her Master’s degree in speech pathology and holds national certifications in speech pathology, language, and audiology. In 1969 she opened California’s first private day school for the hearing impaired, Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired in Whittier. In Las Vegas she taught hearing-impaired children in her home on an individual and pro-bono basis. In this interview Lois recalls her teaching career, debates in deaf education, her 12 years on Clark County School District School Board, and the people and the neighborhoods that make up Las Vegas’s Ward 1, the area she has represented on the Las Vegas City Council continuously since 2005.
Erma "Linda" Rivera was born in Morenci, Arizona, in 1952. In the Las Vegas Valley, where Linda has lived for over twenty years, she has promoted educational opportunities for youth, particularly in the Hispanic community. Both she and her husband moved from Montana, where her husband worked as a power plant operator on Yellowtail Dam, to southern Nevada to work on Hoover Dam in 1986. Linda was put in charge of the affirmative employment plan for her branch of the Bureau of Reclamation. She thought there should be more Hispanics working for the Bureau of Reclamation, but she found that there weren't many Hispanics studying engineering. Linda reached out to John Medina at the Southern Nevada Hispanic Employment Program for help. He convinced her to become involved with the program, and she would later become its conference chair. Linda organized the Family Leadership Module for parents in the Clark County School District to give advice and encouragement for parents who are non-native speakers of English, so that they feel more confident becoming involved in the school district. She currently works as the Diversity Officer for the Bureau of Reclamation in Boulder City.
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.
The Margo Mansergh Papers (approximately 1920-2010) document the life of former showgirl and dancer Margaret "Margo" Mansergh Tomaszewski. Materials include photographs of Margo modeling, backstage at various shows, portraits, and personal family photographs as well as programs from her international career performing in the Lido de Paris and Pigalle Nightclub in London, as well as a number of shows in Las Vegas, Nevada, such as Vive Les Girls, Casino de Paris, Minsky's Burlesque, and Lido de Paris at the Stardust. The collection contains materials from Mansergh's modeling career, including photographs, book covers, and images of her as an extra in films. Digital images from the closing Stardust performance and an event for Miss Bluebell are also found in the collection.
The Aplin Family Scrapbooks (1927-1971) consists of four handmade scrapbooks compiled by Hilda Aplin. The scrapbooks contain photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and handwritten captions. The majority of the collection focuses on Hilda and Charles Aplin’s involvement in the Fraternal Order of Eagles and Las Vegas Eagles Auxiliary #1213. Also included is a photograph album that details the family’s activities from 1927 to 1959, including notable locations around Las Vegas, Nevada such as Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, Mt. Charleston, and annual Helldorado parades.