A resident of Southern Nevada from the age of three, Susan Watson shares her memories of growing up and living in Las Vegas. After a year in Boulder City, Susan's father bought an old army barrack and converted it to a home in North Las Vegas; Susan remembers playing in the desert with her siblings and attending elementary and middle school before starting at Rancho High. Watching her mother design costumes for Strip performers and beautiful dresses for her own high school dances no doubt helped Susan develop her own sense of taste and style - something that she would put to good use over many years as an interior designer. Before that though, Susan shares her memories of what life was like in the Las Vegas of the 1950s and 1960s: cruising Fremont Street; movie nights; after-school work; favorite teachers; lunches on the lawn; and dance club. All combine to paint a vivid picture of a smaller town and a simpler time in the Las Vegas valley.

When Barbara Agonia arrived in Las Vegas in 1969 to pursue a Master's Degree in English, the University of Nevada Las Vegas was barely ten years old and the population of Las Vegas was just approaching 160,000 residents. At the time, she was 35 years-old and it was a decision and move that would forever change her life and higher education in Clark County. Barbara Agonia was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1934 to Robert Lewis Klinefelter and Suzanne Carter Klinefelter. At the time of Barbara's birth, her father worked for Brown Shoe Company in St. Louis. The family moved to Bunker Hill, Illinois when Barbara was still an infant. This was Mr. Klinefelter's hometown where a portion of the extended family still resided. In the late 1930s, Mr. Klinefelter got a job in a brass mill near Alton, Illinois, and he commuted there daily. When the United States entered World War II, Mr. Klinefelter tried to enlist in the army, but was rejected because he had two small children and because he worked in an essential industry. He decided to work in a non-essential industry and took a job at Montgomery Ward in Oak Park, Illinois. Barbara was in the third grade that year. Still unable to enlist, Mr. Klinefelter moved the family to Wabash, Indiana, and began working for General Tire in 1943. They moved to Logansport, Indiana in 1947. Agonia recounts that education has always been a significant part of her life, with the importance of a good education stressed in her life from early childhood forward. After graduating from high school in Logansport, Indiana, she attended Hanover College in southern Indiana, enrolling in 1952. Her educational experience at Hanover included a year studying abroad at the University of Exeter in Devonshire, England—an experience which Agonia credits as further cementing her commitment to education and her love of literature and language. She graduated from Hanover in 1957 with a double major in English and speech/ theater. Agonia spent her first years out of college teaching high school English, speech, and theater in west central Illinois and the next eight in northern Illinois. A little over ten years into her career, at the age of 35, she decided to pursue a Master's degree in English. Her sister, Martha, who at the time lived in Las Vegas, suggested checking into programs offered at the city's newly formed university. In 1969, Barbara moved to Las Vegas and enrolled in the English Department at UNLV. As Agonia was completing her degree in 1971, the community college system in Nevada was emerging and seeking faculty for the up and coming institution. Curious to know more about the new system, Agonia scheduled a meeting with the person in charge of hiring. Two hours later, she walked out with a contract in her hand, one of eight new faculty members at Clark County Community College, now known as College of Southern Nevada. In her early years with the college, Agonia did a great deal of public speaking on behalf on the newly formed system, promoting the new institution and reaching out to potential students. At the same time, she taught full course loads in composition and literature, and eventually became chair of the English department. Her new position and public speaking work on behalf of the college not only provided her contact with the local Las Vegas community, it ultimately became the catalyst in spurring her passion for community involvement, particularly working on behalf of women within the community. • • Vll As the 1980s approached, Agonia became actively involved in rape crisis education, at the urging of Florence McClure. Then, in 1980, Agonia was again in on the ground floor of community programming, when she and Beverly Funk, at the urging of Judith Eaton, the president of Clark County Community College, established a Women's Center on campus. The Center was initially set up to help women in a variety of life circumstances, including women who were wanting to return to school or who were new to the process of school altogether. The center eventually became the Re-Entry Center offering skill development, tutoring programs, and other forms of assistance for anyone interested in returning to school. In addition to her involvement in and commitment to public education, Agonia has also been involved in the Soroptimist International organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls in local and international communities. In the Las Vegas area, Soroptimist International of Greater Las Vegas worked to establish the Rape Crisis Center and the Center for Domestic Violence, which later became SafeNest. Agonia has been working with the organization since 1982. Through Soroptimist International, she also became involved in Friends of the Nevada Wilderness, an organization devoted to designation and long-term protection of Nevada's wilderness areas. As the representative for Soroptimist International, she traveled to Washington to lobby and testify in front of the senate for the establishment of Great Basin National Park. Agonia's work in the Las Vegas community over the past forty years has been significant. She counts Florence McClure, Geneva Douglas, and Jean Ford amongst her greatest influences. As she notes in her oral history, "I learned how to be radical from those women." She happily embraces the label of radical. This attitude surfaces throughout Agonia's experiences and recollections, and underscores her work and dedication to the interplay of local education and women's issues within Nevada.

When farm-girl-turned-waitress, Margaret "Maggie" Price, came to Las Vegas from Ohio in 1950 with her husband, Francis "Frank" Price, she had no idea what was in store for her in the hot desert oasis. Maggie's career spanned a period of historical transformation in Las Vegas when Downtown was becoming overshadowed by the development on the Las Vegas Strip. Vaudeville and striptease acts were still alive, but the arrival of big-named acts, such as the Rat Pack, Barbara Streisand, and the King himself, Elvis Presley, were just beginning to take the lead. Organized crime was still a prominent part of the culture and brothels still operated somewhat openly. The three decades Maggie and Frank worked in Las Vegas provided them with front-row seats for the birth, transformation, and occasional death of numerous casinos, including the Sahara, the Flamingo, the Sands, the Dunes, the Tropicana, and the International. Initially going to work as a waitress at the El Rancho Vegas, Maggie

Folks who graduated Boulder City High School in 1953 and who began kindergarten there might remember being in kindergarten class with Clark D. "Danny" Lee. They would be excused for not remembering the towheaded Lee; after all, he was in Boulder City only for the first half of the year. They also would be excused for not remembering Lee because he never stayed in school once he arrived. Danny was the child whose mother faithfully brought him to class every day. And every day, as soon as his mother dropped him off, he took off and beat his mother home. Danny Lee was born in his grandparents’ house in North Las Vegas, grew up on 10 Bonneville Street, and (except for his first semester of kindergarten in Boulder City) attended Fifth Street Elementary School and Las Vegas High School, where he graduated in 1953 with Rex Bell. In 1960 he married fellow Las Vegas High grad and former Rhythmette, Dorothy Damron; they have raised four children. Here, Lee talks about the difficulties his father had finding work and supporting a family during the Great Depression-of living with relatives and moving from place to place in the small travel trailer as his father found work. He describes a hardscrabble Las Vegas, where he and other kids in in multiethnic groups found temporary work helping drovers in the stockyards or filling blocks of ice in the icehouse. He recalls working for Superior Tire during high school and for the Union Pacific Railroad in a variety of jobs after graduation and the U.S. Army-including a stint as a Union Pacific tour director. v Lee’s early kindergarten career seems an unlikely academic indicator for a man who would spend most of his adult life volunteering for and lobbying on behalf of Clark County public libraries and who the American Library Association would select as the 1990 Library Trustee of the Year. Ironically, Lee was asked to serve on the Clark County Library District board of directors to get rid of a troublesome library director. Instead, he became one of the director’s staunchest advocates. It is appropriate that Danny and his wife, Dorothy, are pictured here surrounded by library books. The native Las Vegan built a lifetime career as a State Farm Insurance salesman, but in this interview he focuses on his public library advocacy, his time as trustee for the Clark County Library District; the formation of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District; the ambitious building program funded by $80 million in voter-approved statewide bonds; and the political wrangling in Carson City necessary to achieve these ends. Lee’s oral history complements that of his wife, Dorothy Lee, and of Charles Hunsberger, who was the “troublesome” library director at the time Lee was trustee. Lee made his living as an insurance salesman. Lee’s ability to sell a product-whether it be insurance or an $80 million bond issue-is the attribute that made Danny Lee so valuable as a trustee to the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and consequently, to all Clark County residents who value public library services. However, his passion, and dedication, and unbowed determination earned him the Library Trustee of the Year award. As Lee closes the interview, he locks eyes with Dorothy and muses, "Let me tell you what I'm most proud of in all . . . I've been married to this lady for fifty six years now. . . . I've lived a very blessed life. Being born in my grandmother's house and having lived in little travel trailers, it's just good. It's worked. We're living like we've always wanted to live right now."

Prior to 1962, Helen Naugle had only visited Las Vegas once in her life while traveling from Idaho to California for a vacation with her husband and her boss. The group made a quick stop so her boss could interview for a position with EG&G and, as fate would have it, EG&G did not hire Helen’s boss. However, they did extend a job offer to Helen’s husband. A month later, Helen, her two daughters, and her husband became residents of Las Vegas, Nevada. Before moving to Nevada, Helen enjoyed singing in super clubs and performing on her radio show, “Melodies from Meadowland” and working for American Machine and Foundry. Upon her arrival in Las Vegas, Helen went to work for Bonanza Airlines before attending real estate school. In 1963, Helen opened her first office, Bruce Realty, and in 1965, she obtained her Broker’s license. She spent the next ten years selling general real estate. During this period, Helen was an active member of the Board of Realtors, as well as an early participant in the Board’s newly formed Women’s Council. Fate would strike again in Helen’s life while she was visiting her daughter at college in Arizona where she read an article in the Phoenix newspaper about a group of brokers who had formed a networking association to sell hotels and motels across the country. As a result of her initial contact with this association, Helen spent the next four decades selling hotels and motels throughout the State of Nevada, including Las Vegas, Elko, Tonopah, and Wells. She eventually became the first woman President of the American National Hotel-Motel Association. The cultural diversity of hotel and motel buyers would provide Helen with opportunities to travel the world and work with buyers from many different countries and cultural backgrounds. It also led to Helen’s membership in the FIABCI (International Real Estate Federation) and her Certified International Property Specialist and Federation of International Property Consultants certifications. Helen was also selected by the Association to represent the Air Force as “Innkeeper Evaluator” for one year. This honor took her to five Air Force bases in the United States and to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. During Helen’s career in hotel and motel real estate sales, she witnessed the transition from “mom-and-pop” American buyers to the influx of international buyers predominately from East India and Asia. The opportunities for helping repeat buyers and sellers gradually went away, as foreign buyers entered the market and tended to resell their properties to friends and family members from their own countries. During the latter part of her career, Helen found time to give back to the Las Vegas community through her volunteer work helping to establish the Scleroderma Foundation of Nevada. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Downtown Las Vegas Partnership where she focused on public safety in the area encompassing the Fremont Street Experience. Her work with both of these organizations allowed her to draw on her career experience for the benefit of others. Whether it was fate, or as Helen put it, she “just lucked into a lot of things,” one thing is certain - Helen Naugle was certainly a trail blazer for women in the hotel-motel niche of the real estate business, not only in Nevada, but across the nation.

Count Guido Roberto Deiro, born in Reno, Nevada, in 1938, has had several fascinating careers. The son of vaudeville performer and recording star Count Guido Pietro Deiro, who was the first major piano-accordionist to become popular in the United States, and his teenage wife Yvonne Teresa LeBaron De Forrest, Deiro grew up in and around Las Vegas and Southern California after his parents' 1941 divorce. After attending 13 grammar schools and five high schools, Deiro graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1955. During his youth, thanks to his stepfather Samuel "Baby Shoes" Prezant, Deiro had an early introduction to the Las Vegas gambling scene. Following a brief stint in the U.S. Army, Deiro worked a series of jobs, including parking cars, selling shoes, and driving an ambulance. He transitioned from working as a fitness instructor to being a lifeguard at the El Rancho Vegas hotel, all the while becoming interested in aviation. Deiro entered the gaming industry at the age of 19 and a half, when he began working as a dealer, having been taught by his stepfather. Breaking in at the Nevada Club, Deiro, who became known as "Bobby Blue Eyes," later worked at the New Frontier, Sands, El Cortez, and Holiday casinos. He provides a great deal of detail about the social world of Las Vegas casinos in the 1950s through the 1970s, with insight into many major personalities. While working in gaming, Deiro continued to pursue a career in aviation, acquiring in the early 1960s a commercial pilot license, instrument rating and instructor's certificate. He began working as a flight instructor and charter pilot at Thunderbird Field, now known as North Las Vegas Air Terminal. Deiro flew around the United States promoting Las Vegas and the airfield. After Howard Hughes purchased the airfield in 1967, Deiro stayed, ultimately becoming Director of Aviation Facilities for the Hughes Tool Company. Following his marriage to Joan Marlene Calhoun, Deiro moved to California, where he became Vice President and Director of Administration for Air California and Golden West Airlines, before serving with other companies owned by C. Arnholdt Smith. In 1971, Deiro returned to Las Vegas. Deiro then met artist Michael Heizer, who enlisted Deiro's help in scouting and securing locations for his Earth art installations. This led to Deiro's long involvement with that genre. In addition to these careers, Deiro was also influential in many key developments in Las Vegas, including the construction of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and, with his wife Joan, several philanthropic endeavors. In this interview, Deiro shares his perspectives on his times and his impact on Las Vegas.

Donna Newsom shares the history of her life in great detail, beginning with her childhood in Georgia and Florida. The family moved many times, following her father's work opportunities. Donna had a close relationship with her father and recalls the many daring adventures on which he took her. After graduating from high school, Donna earned a nursing degree at the Macon Hospital School of Nursing. She remembers dorm life, long hours, and the specific training nurses received in the late forties. Her career began at age 19 with a year of working at Macon Hospital as a graduate nurse, and then she made plans to leave the South. Donna's memories include moving to Houston, living in a boarding house, her first date, and working at Hermann Hospital and then Methodist Hospital. She then answered an ad to work at a Girl Scout camp in Colorado, and her roommate there became a mentor and one of her staunchest supporters. With help from her mentor, Donna went on to earn a teaching degree in Austin, Texas, met and married her husband Sam Newsom, and got involved in real estate. She relates the many experiences they had during Sam's Navy career, her teaching experience in New Orleans, and their eventual move to Las Vegas. Sam and Donna loved Las Vegas from the moment they moved here. She recalls many details of her employment at UMC, the differences in health care compared to down south, and the feeling of being safe no matter the time of day or night. Donna stays active in tutoring, the OLLI program at UNLV, and working for the Salvation Army women's auxiliary. She and Sam also get together with his golfing buddies and their wives for dinners in their various homes.