Four press/news releases from the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The releases discuss entertainment news concerning various celebrities like Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, Tony Bennett, Abbe Lane, Mary Welch, and Bruce Maxwell.
Gladys Neville's story begins in Crowley, Louisiana, in 1915. She grew up as one of eleven children, graduated from high school in 1933, and entered nursing school at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. After earning her RN in 1937, she continued to work at Charity for four years, then joined the Army and served in the European Theater for three years. Gladys details her experience in nursing school, explaining that students were given on-the-job training. With that training and four years of nursing after that, she was well qualified to join the 24th General Hospital overseas deployment in WWII. It was during her stay in Florence, Italy, that she was married and not too long after that, the war ended and she and her husband were transferred back to the States. Her husband's work for Bank of America took them to Laguna Beach, Salt Lake City, and Idaho Falls. Their children were bom during this period and Gladys took a 20 year hiatus from nursing. In 1962 they moved to Las Vegas and in 1964 Gladys decided to take a refresher course at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital (now University Medical Center). After that refresher course, Gladys was hired for a full-time day shift at UMC. She and the interviewer share many details about the hospital's physical appearance, the staffing, location of surgeries and burn units, and how the RN's encouraged LPN's to continue their training and become nurses. Gladys concludes her interview with further recollections of her military nursing experience. She also gives more details about her war-time wedding. Among her final comments, she mentions the stress of working full time when her husband was ill.
Dr. Donald Baepler was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July of 1932. The family moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1936, where his father was president of Concordia Seminary. Donald decided at the age of seven that he wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in ornithology, not an unusual goal in his family. By the time he graduated high school, he knew that he wanted to attend Carlton College in Minnesota to study under Olin Sewall Pettingill. He followed world-famous ornithologist and artist George Sutton to Michigan and then to Oklahoma to complete his doctorate.
Ben Rosenfeld was born circa 1904 in Starokonstantinov, Volynia Gubernia, in the Russian Empire. Ben, born Boruch Rosenfeld, arrived at Ellis Island in July of 1913. He traveled with his older half-sister and brother immigrating separately from his father and other half-sister who had already landed in Philadelphia in 1912. Ben’s mother, Rivka, never did immigrate, and it is assumed she died during the interim between the two sailings of her family.
Joseph M. Neal Jr. was born July 28, 1935. Senator Joe Neal shares many memories of his childhood in Mound, Louisiana. He recalls his mother leaving him and his older brother Willie with a woman named Bea so that she could go to Alexander to get a job. He and Willie were ages 2 and 4, respectively, and were frequently left on their own. Willie would leave periodically for hours at a time and come back with food. He eventually took Joe to meet the couple who were supplying the meals, Mary and Gowens Prayder.