Herbert C. Wells was born April 11, 1927 in Omaha, Nebraska. After his father was killed in a plane crash in 1931, his mother moved herself and Wells to Los Angeles, California to be near her husband's parents. They moved several times, but the goal was always to find good schools for Wells and his sister.

Mabel Rhea was born in Farimont, West Virginia on April 6, 1920. She studied nursing, and enlisted as a U.S. Army nurse during World War II. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada after divorcing her first husband in 1949. She began working at the Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital. After meeting her second husband, the two moved to Blue Diamond Village, Nevada.

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