Kay Dwyer was born August 30, 1934 to James and Eileen Crawford. Her father attained a job as an accountant with Basic Magnesium Incorporated in 1942. This meant that the family moved to Henderson, Nevada, which was a brand new community back in the early 1940's. The BMI plant, which manufactured magnesium for bombs and other war materials, is discussed throughout the interview. The interview begins with Kay reading a composition that she wrote entitled, "Our Summer of 1942 and More." In the reading she talks about the early years of her life when she first moved to southern Nevada. Kay gives remarkable details about the towns of Basic and Henderson (Basic became the town of Henderson) were like during this historic period. In 1952, she graduated from Basic High School and then moved to Los Angeles to attend Pepperdine University for two years. She moved back to the Las Vegas area and started a family with Stanly Hardy with whom she had three children. Sadly, at age 31 Stanly passed away from pancreatic cancer. After a break, Kay decided to go back to school and graduated from Nevada Southern University (now UNLV). Upon graduation, she immediately began teaching at Clark High School. In 1968, Kay married George Dwyer after being a widow for five years. Later, she taught at Las Vegas High School where she would go on to spend the next 25 years until 1995. This interview is an excellent resource for quality information pertaining to the early years of Southern Nevada. Kay Dwyer's extraordinary experiences provide us with a special look at the history of Las Vegas.
The manuscript synopsis for the television series Good Ole Hank is accompanied by a letter from Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures (Hollywood, Calif.), rejecting the proposal.
On March 14, 1981, collector Perry L. Smith interviewed police officer, John L. Houck, (born May 11th, 1944 in Butte, Montana) in his home in Las Vegas, Nevada. This interview offers an overview of the history of Las Vegas and insider details on early Las Vegas police work. The interview concludes with a discussion on Henderson and Boulder City.
On February 27, 1979, collector Judy Laliberte interviewed local school teacher LaVaun Hendrix in her home in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two discuss how Hendrix originally came to Nevada, her occupational history, and differences between the school system in Las Vegas and other states that she’s lived in. Hendrix explains how a changing school system has affected her job as a teacher and her students. She goes on to talk about the above-ground atomic tests, Helldorado, changes to the desert, and Nevada during World War II. The interview concludes with Hendrix describing her travels through Nevada.
Oral history interview with Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez conducted by Rodrigo Vazquez and Barbara Tabach on June 16, 2021 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Laurents is a Las Vegas native, graduate of Clark High School, and son of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants. He is currently an English teacher at Rancho High School and was a former student worker on the Latinx Voices project.