Oral history interview with Larry Davis conducted by Barbara Tabach on October 14, 2020 for The Great Pause: Las Vegas Chronicles of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Born and raised in Southern California, Larry moved to Las Vegas in 1995 to work in the funeral services industry. He describes the changes he has seen during his career during the past 40 years with particular regard to recent challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of an interview with Senator Joe Neal by Claytee White on February 7, 2006. Neal discusses his early work in the Nevada Legislature, including his support for restoring rights to felons and his opposition to capital punishment.
Oral history interview with Grant M. Bowler conducted by David N. Cunningham on February 20, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. During this interview, Bowler discusses his personal family history in relation to Nevada, education, employment, and his thirty seven years of experience as a principal in Moapa Valley, Nevada.
Oral history interview with Stavan Corbett conducted by Nathalie Martinez on November 5, 2018 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Barbara Tabach and Rodrigo Vazquez also participate in the questioning. Stavan Corbett is a member of the Latino community who has served as an educator and politician in Las Vegas. Growing up in Las Vegas, Stavan was exposed to various environments that all helped him shape his Latino identity. Stavan was able to appreciate the Catholic and Jewish cultures as well. During the 1970s and '80s his experiences with first and second generation Latinos played a large role in his identity formation, especially as a student. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school and college. Stavan worked in the hotel industry and moved on to work with troubled youth and eventually become a member of the Nevada State Board and the Clark County School Board. His continued work with the Latin Chamber of Commerce has also allowed him to be involved with the Latino Youth Leadership Conference. Subjects discussed include: Identity Struggle, Interracial Relationships, Working in the Hotel Industry, Clark County School District, and Cultural Assimilation.
Joyce Anne Parkhurst (née Reese) was born on October 24, 1935, in Long Beach, California. Joyce married James on January 30, 1955, and they had five children: Jim, Jeff, Jennifer, Jocelyn, and Jill.
Parkhurst attended one and a half years of college and one and a half years of nursing school.
Henderson developer and Philadelphia native Richard MacDonald is a natural storyteller, and he has stories to tell. The man behind MacDonald Highlands and the Dragon Ridge Country Club first moved to Las Vegas as a young teen with his parents in 1959. After graduating Las Vegas High School in 1963, his parents moved to Hawaii and he enrolled at Nevada Southern University (now UNLV) and supported himself in Las Vegas by selling unfinished houses. His parents convinced him to move to Hawaii, where he attended the University of Hawaii worked with his father selling blocks of pre-developed cemetery lots to Asian buyers. In this interview, MacDonald describes his experience as a white man facing racial discrimination, of Las Vegas as Hawaii's Ninth Island, of earning his real estate broker's license, and of his father's plan to develop and sell Las Vegas property to Hawaiians. Returning to Las Vegas, MacDonald worked with Frank Sala and Chuck Ruthe to obtain his first two sections of Henderson land, which became Sun City MacDonald Ranch and the western part of MacDonald Highlands. He talks of developing Sunridge at MacDonald Ranch on Eastern Avenue and The Canyons at MacDonald Ranch. He also speaks to local prejudice against Hawaiians and to the way the City of Henderson favored Hank Greenspun and American Nevada Corporation. He recalls his twenty-year experience as a developer with the City of Henderson, its planning commission, city manager, city attorney, and city council. He reveals associations with Del Webb and the Del Webb CEO, Anthem, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Sultan of Brunei, and polo fields as well as Red Alerts, the Foothills project, and MacDonald Highlands. Along the way he talks of golf course architects and planners and the MacDonald Highlands golf course, his family, the Great Recession, and his current status with the City of Henderson and the Archaeological Institute of America.
Oral history interview with Linh Fee conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Stefani Evans, and Jerwin Tiu on February 4, 2022 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Linh Fee talks about her family life growing up in Oahu, Hawaii, how her parents met in Vietnam, and memories of her childhood with her six siblings. She shares how she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to find work after graduating from college at the University of Hawaii and her brief time working in the hospitality industry as a cocktail server. Fee discusses her career change to become a dental hygienist and life with her husband and three children.