After serving as a nurse in World War II in Hawaii, Okinawa and Japan, Dorothy returned home to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She experienced a particularly bad winter and she set out for California but stopped in Las Vegas to visit the family of her traveling companion, a girlfriend from her home town. The girlfriend returned to Wisconsin and George applied for a nursing license and got it within three days. She never left. Dorothy met her husband while working the night shift at Clark County Hospital. He would come in regularly to assist his patients in the births of their babies. Their occupations and their service in World War II drew them together in a marriage that has lasted over fifty years. From 1949 to this interview in 2003, Dorothy George has seen Las Vegas grow from a town that she loved to a metropolitan area that is no longer as friendly. She reminisces about the Heldorado parades, family picnics at Mount Charleston, watching the cloud formed by the atomic bomb tests, raising six successful children, leading a Girl Scout Troop, and working in organizations to improve the social and civic life of Las Vegas.

Kimberly Harney-Moore and her three siblings were raised in the John S. Park Neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s. Their parents, Tim and Kathleen Hamey, were educators. A nostalgic feeling for the neighborhood remains; perhaps, rekindled when she had close friends buy a house across the street from her childhood home. In this interview, Kimberly talks about the inviting character of the area's architecture, mentions a few names of neighbors she babysat for, and fondly recalls her job at Luv-Its Custard shop. There was a time when she would drive through the old neighborhood and be saddened by the lack of upkeep and the changes, but today it is a place being reborn to a new generation. Note: Tim Harney and Kathleen Harney, Kimberly parents, are also participants in the Voice of the Historic John S. Park Neighborhood oral history project.

Kim Bird's family moved to Las Vegas in 1955 when she was twelve years old. Pam Fogliasso arrived in 1954 with her family in 1954, when she was ten. Kim married and had a son and a daughter; she lives in Las Vegas. Pam married, had two children, and lives in Parumph, Nevada. Though Kim and Pam moved here in the mid-1950s, they had family members who had lived in Southern Nevada and worked on building Hoover Dam - Kim's grandfather and Pam's great-uncle. Both women remember growing up in a Las Vegas that was run by the mob and safe for teenagers; meeting friends in local hangouts such as the Blue Onion and attending sock hops, babysitting, and cruising down Fremont Street. They attended high school with black students but were also aware of the segregation that existed on the Strip. This interview focuses on Kim and Pam's experiences growing up in Las Vegas, and on their teenaged years attending Rancho High School.

Florence McClure came to Las Vegas later in her life, but the state felt her presence and the community her contributions as if she were a native daughter. Introduced to the League of Women Voters in 1967, McClure met her political mentor Jean Ford and learned how to practice the core elements of democracy. She put those tools to work in a number of ways, however her participation in the creation of the Rape Crises Center and her advocacy for locating the women’s prison near Las Vegas are two of her long-lasting efforts. Florence Alberta Schilling was born in southern Illinois where she enjoyed the security of a tight-knit family and the independence to test her abilities growing up. She graduated from high school and attended the MacMurray College for Women at Jacksonville. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she began a series of jobs working for the war effort. She moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan with a girlfriend to work at the Willow Run Army Airbase and then moved to Miami, Florida where she worked for the Provost Marshall in the Security and Intelligence Division. She met her husband, James McClure, at the time and they married in 1945. During the next several years, they raised a family and moved around the country and to Japan with the military. McClure came to Las Vegas in 1966 as part of her work in the hotel industry which she engaged in after her husband’s retirement from the military. She had worked in California and Miami Beach, but it was Burton Cohen in Los Angeles who invited her to join him in a move to Las Vegas to build the new Frontier Hotel and Casino. Following the completion of the Frontier, she moved to the Desert Inn with Cohen in 1967 and worked as the executive office manager. After a few years, she decided to leave the industry and complete her college education. She graduated from UNLV in 1971with a BA in Sociology with an emphasis on criminology. She was 50 years old. McClure had been a member of the League of Women Voters for a few years at that point and had learned the political process from Jean Ford and workshops on lobbying. She had numerous skills that were waiting to be tapped when she attended an informational meeting on the incidence of rape in the Las Vegas valley. From that meeting, a small group of individuals, including McClure, began the organization Community Action Against Rape (later renamed the Rape Crisis Center) in 1973. It was the first agency in the area devoted to serving individuals who had been assaulted and changing the laws on rape. The organization’s first office was set up in McClure’s home. Over the next decade, she worked to change attitudes and reshape policy by constantly raising the issues of sexual assault with police officers, emergency room doctors, judges, and legislators. Her role as an advocate took her into hospital emergency rooms and courtrooms to assist victims. It also took her to the state legislator to lobby repeatedly for a change in laws. During this period, journalist Jan Seagrave gave McClure the nickname “Hurricane Florence” - a fitting moniker that captured the force with which McClure attacked the issue. As a result of her efforts and those of the people with whom she worked, we now 1) recognize rape as a crime of assault; 2) forbid the sexual history of a rape victim from being used against her in court; and 3) recognize marital rape. In addition to learning about Florence McClure’s activities, the reader of this interview will gain information on the role of civic organizations like the League of Women Voters in engaging the voluntary efforts of women in the post-war years.

Part I: Interview with Al Levy by Cheryl Caples on February 23, 1979. At the time of this interview, Levy was serving on the city commission (now the Las Vegas City Council). He talks about growing up in Las Vegas and attending Las Vegas Grammar School (Fifth Street School) and Las Vegas High School. He mentions the Helldorado events, recreational activities, and raising a family in Las Vegas. Part II: Interview with Al Levy by Martha Zehnder on March 8, 1981. Levy recalls much of the same information as the previous interview, and again talks about his schooling and attending the University of Southern California. He returned to Las Vegas to assist his father with his grocery stores. Levy talks about the polio epidemic as the reason that children were not allowed to swim at public or hotel pools. He discusses his real estate firm, Levy Realty Company, his involvement in the community and the Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce), and the booming hotel industry. Levy also discusses some city leaders he's known, including Mayor Gragson. He talks about his Jewish faith and having to go to Los Angeles to train for his bar mitzvah because there were no rabbis living in Las Vegas.

Andrew (Drew) Levy was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, where his family became prominent civic and real estate leaders. His grandfather was Harry Levy, a former Las Vegas City Commissioner, and his father Alvin Levy was a former councilman. Drew is always proud to say that he never left Las Vegas and of partnering with his father in the Levy Realty Company. While growing up, Drew it was easy for a teenager to enjoy the perks that could accompany his family?s civic persona?such as casino shows, events and meeting early Las Vegas casino executives like Moe Dalitz. After graduation from Clark High School, Drew attended Arizona State University. It was in Tempe that he met Debbie Cheek, his future wife. When Debbie arrived in Las Vegas, she enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she finished her degree and started her accounting practice. She ran her business for ten years before opening Art Starts Here, an art school. In the 1990s, Debbie?s passion for art led her to be involved in the creation of First Friday, a local monthly art festival. She also teaches a summer art camp for the Adelson Educational Campus. Drew and Debbie became deeply involved in the many Jewish congregations in Las Vegas. Blossoming first at Temple Beth Sholom where they were married in 1980, Debbie sat on the preschool board and oversaw the temple board, while Drew was the advisor for the youth group. The couple later joined Congregation Ner Tamid where Drew was congregation president from 1999 to 2000 and Debbie was board treasurer in 2001. Debbie includes stories of her conversion to Judaism and keeping kosher. In this interview, Drew and Debbie Levy reflect on changes they see in Las Vegas, from when Drew was a kid to the times they raised their own daughters, Sarah and Jenna, here. Looking at the larger picture of the city, they describe booms in the real estate market and growth in the artistic and cultural aspects of Las Vegas. They provide a perspective of the growth of the local Jewish community.

Kerin Rodgers owned a retail fashion store and modeling agency with a friend in Santa Monica, California. She came to Las Vegas in 1966 to work at The Broadway department store. She bought a home in the John S. Park Neighborhood in 1974. Popular radio personality; active in local and national politics.