Susan Cowan grew up in Kansas City, Missouri with her parents, older sister and grandparents. By the time Cowan graduated from high school, she had moved five different times. This continued once she was married, she eventually settled in Boulder, Colorado. It was there that Cowan began working in higher education as a secretary at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she met her second husband.
Jack W. Cornell was born November 25, 1918 in Manhattan, Nevada. He was in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He also worked as a miner and was in the automotive body repair industry.
Mike Devere was born 1947 in Reno, Nevada. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1950. He worked numerous jobs in the culinary department of different hotels and was a university police officer for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Suzette M. Cox was born on July 20th, 1945 in San Diego, California. She was a secretary at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a deputy sheriff at the Las Vegas Sun newspaper.
Ruth D'Hondt was born and reared in Las Vegas, Nevada, living on Jackson Street where her family owned Mattie's Cafe. The restaurant provided not just great food but employment for D’hondt and her five brothers and sisters. In 1959, the family moved to Berkley Square.
Martha Drohobyczar was born on November 21, 1951 and grew up in Illinois, three generations removed from slavery. Even though her first college degree was in government and national relations, Drohobyczar found an accelerated nursing program at St. Louis University in 1975 and graduated a year later with a bachelor’s in nursing.