Politician Oran Gragson was the longest-serving mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada, a position he held from 1959 to 1975. He was born February 14, 1911, near Tucamari, New Mexico. In 1919 his family moved to Arkansas, then later to Texas. Gragson came to the Las Vegas area in 1932, and worked at the Hoover Dam for a short time before finding employment in highway construction. He later managed the Boulder Inn Casino and Dance Hall and then became part owner of a new and used furniture store. He later opened the North Main Furniture Store, followed by the Charleston Appliance Center.

African-American civil rights activist and politician

Between 1973 and his death in 1993, Jim Joyce managed campaigns for some 300 candidates, and lost only about 10 percent of them. Having helped elect so many legislators, it is not surprising he was the most effective lobbyist ever seen in the state Capitol. Victorious politicians and fallen rivals thought him a genius. He was certainly imaginative. Which brings us to those garbage cans.