Emory and Agnes Lockette met while they were both in college; she in Albany, Georgia, and he in Dawson, Georgia. He studied architectural and structural engineering. They secretly married in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1949 and moved to Boulder City in 1953 where they were the only African Americans during a time of tense race relations. She earned graduate degrees, including a doctorate in early childhood education, at UNLV. Initially, Mrs.
County Commissioner and business owner James H. Down Sr. (1877-1946) was born in Michigan on September 20, 1877. After the death of both of his parents, he was adopted by Walter A. Down. In 1907 James H. Down married his first wife, Rogena Mahar. They moved to Nevada in 1916 and settled in Goodsprings, Nevada where he worked for George A. Fayle. In 1923, Down relocated to Las Vegas and operated a garage. He opened a Studebaker automobile dealership at the corner of Main and Carson Streets in downtown Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, James H. Down Sr.
Arthur “Art” Sloan (1930-2019) was a philanthropist and a successful entrepreneur who ran multiple businesses that specialized in lighting and air conditioning. During his time in Las Vegas, Nevada, Sloan collected materials from casinos such as the Flamingo, El Rancho, and Hotel Last Frontier. These materials included ash trays, silverware, postcards, photographs, dice, playing cards, and casino memorabilia.
Robert Herre Crabtree was born on September 27, 1929 in Chehalis, Washington. He was educated in western Washington and receieved his master's degree from the University of Washington in 1957. In 1960, he became a teaching and research assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles and worked as a research archaeologist in around around California and Mexico.
Pablo Macias was born in Carlin, Nevada, a small town 20 miles west of Elko, where the local population of Latinos was small. He has lived in Las Vegas since 1990.
He is the youngest of nine children born to Sofia and Tomas Macias, who met and married while living in Utah. Tomas was born in the United States and worked as a railroad laborer. Sofia was Mexican born and found work as a maid to help provide for their family.
Retired City of Las Vegas Assistant Fire Chief Cherina Kleven was born in Taiwan, the fifth of her parents' seven children and the first daughter. The family spoke Taiwanese at home, but once the children started school all instruction was in Mandarin Chinese. Her father was in charge of the motor pool for the U.S. Embassy, and her mother stayed home. In 1970, the family immigrated the U.S. and to Las Vegas, where her father could use his training as an electrician to work with air conditioners. Cherina attended Roy W.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Maila Aganon emigrated with her parents in 1992, after she completed her first semester of college. She describes as "typical" her youth as the youngest child (with brothers 5 and 7 years older) of a teacher who worked in another village and a father who worked out of the country. Although independent, she was part of a tightly knit village. The household spoke three languages: her mother's dialect, her father's dialect, and Tagalog.