A portrait of Judy Bayley, the location is unknown, but was most likely taken in Las Vegas, Nevada. Judith “Judy” Bayley, namesake of the Judy Bayley Theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was once known as “The First Lady of Gambling.” Judy and her husband Warren “Doc” Bayley opened the Hacienda Hotel and Casino on October 17, 1956. After Warren’s unexpected death from a heart attack on December, 26, 1964, Judy Bayley took over the ownership and operations of the Hacienda. By doing so, she became the first woman in Nevada history to be the sole owner and operator of a hotel-casino. After Judy’s death from cancer on December 31, 1971, the Hacienda was sold in 1972. The Hacienda’s doors closed to the public on December 10, 1996. The hotel was imploded on December 31, 1996 on the 25th anniversary of Judy Bayley’s death, and was broadcast on the Fox news network as part of their New Year’s Eve 1996 telecast. In March 1999, it was replaced with the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

The Las Vegas story of Charlene Cox Cruze begins long before she was born in 1941. Her early ancestors had traveled through the area in the 1850s and her grandparents settled in Las Vegas in 1905, the year of incorporation as a town. She is a registered native American and Daughter of the American Revolution. Char recalls growing up in the valley when it had: a "forest of mesquite", plenty of water and atomic bomb tests. Her family's first home was a structure built on a flatbed that her father pulled behind a truck wherever he had work. In this narrative Char touches upon the memories of being a youngster playing in the dust to riding a horse across the desert, swimming in the pool at the Flamingo and seeing celebrities like Elvis Presley and Nat King Cole perform. She also offers her thoughts about the transformation of Las Vegas from a small city to the modern corporate era of the Strip.

This folder is from the "Correspondence" file of the Sadie and Hampton George Papers (MS-00434)