Lillian Morrison was the first uniformed female who worked for Park Service and has worked for Reclamation for 20 years during the war at Camp Williston. Morrison recalls life in Boulder City during the late 1930s and 1940s. Morrison is the wife of Lloyd Shorty Morrison.

Dr. Tom Wright was born and grew up in Illinois. His father finished his PhD in Chicago and then taught at Illinois College in Jacksonville. His mother suffered from arthritis and was told to seek a warmer climate, so John Wright packed up his family and moved to Las Vegas. Tom was 14, ready for high school, and his two brothers were elementary school age. Tom attended Las Vegas High School, which was close to the Crestwood community where the family had purchased their first home. He remembers that UNLV had no buildings when his dad first started teaching there. Instead, he conducted class in high school classrooms and church Sunday school rooms. Dr. Wright started off at a community college as a Geology Major, but a class with Bud Poland convinced him that history was his passion. He transferred to Pomona to continue his bachelor's degree. He spent his junior year in Peru on a study-abroad program, and that experience made him a Latin Americanist. The information he gath

Jane Greenspun Gale-actor, activist, writer, magazine publisher, philanthropist, and farmer- has filled her life with accomplishments such as the Animal Foundation and Springs Preserve. It has also been a life filled with adventure - from “looking for John Lennon” during her time living and studying acting in London to learning to raise chickens on the acres of the Gilcrease Farm she owns with husband and photographer Jeff Gale. Everyone calls her Janie. Born Jane in 1949, she is the third of four children born to community leaders Barbara and Hank Greenspun. In this oral history, Janie captures the fun of growing up in Las Vegas under the watching eye of Hank. As a teen she and her friends cruised Fremont Street. Several years later she wanted to be arrested protesting the Atomic Test Site, when Hank diverted her into reporting about the event instead. Her Jewish foundation was at Temple Beth Sholom, where her parents were among the founding members. As the Jewish population grew, the tastes in synagogues grew to reflect the change. When Janie’s children preferred the Reform approach at Congregation Ner Tamid, a new family tradition began. She is proud of her background and shares loving stories of time spent with her grandparents as a child and pride in the heroic and dramatic story behind the naming of Hank Greenspun Plaza in Israel. Even her love story with Jeff is a tale made for movies. It unfolds in this engaging oral history interview along with anecdotes that are plucked from her personal history and preserve a reflection of growing up in Las Vegas, one of the Greenspun family of local fame.

Liliam Lujan Hickey was born in 1932 Havana, Cuba, where her father owned an insurance company and her mother was a music teacher. At age 17, Liliam married Enrique Lujan who owned five casinos and who was twelve years her senior. It was the early 1950s, and the people of Cuba lived with stark distinctions between upper class and low-income families. Liliam and Enrique lived a life of luxury. She became accustomed to flying to New York for dinner and wearing the finest Italian silks for custom dresses. Then in 1959, Liliam’s life took a vast turn as Fidel Castro rose to power and seized assets from the wealthy class. This upended Liliam’s family and in 1962, Liliam, Enrique and their three children fled to the United States. They first arrived in San Diego, California, where Liliam took a job at the Scripps Clinic. While Liliam spoke five different languages, she attended night school to learn English. Eventually, Liliam and her family moved to Las Vegas where Enrique could find work in the casinos. Unexpectedly in 1972, Enrique passed away, leaving Liliam and her children to fend for themselves. Liliam was thrust into the role of matriarch; she learned how to write a check and drive a car. She describes this as a period when her community activism awoke, how she secured a position working for the Nevada Welfare Administration Office, and how her persistent spirit led her to citizenship within a week. Through friends, Liliam met Nevada legislator Thomas Hickey, an Irish American who she endearingly nicknamed her Pink Husband. Liliam credits Senator Hickey with teaching her about life and the world, and ultimately inspiring much of her political activism. She was an active member of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, first known as el Circulo Cubano. At the peak of her career, Liliam became the first Latina to be elected to the Nevada State Board of Education. She envisioned building a village through schools in order to support and help all students be successful. A local Las Vegas school, Liliam Lujan Hickey Elementary School, was named in honor of her public service. Today, Liliam is retired, but continues to work to increase civic engagement in the Latinx community and improve our educational system.

Session 1: Interviewed by Elsa Lopez. Rosemary's parents originated from Sonora, Mexico where her father worked in the strawberry fields and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. Her father, in search for a better life, came to Nevada after he heard of jobs available in the Northern Nevada mines. The two met and settled down in Reno after her mother became enamored with the beauty of Lake Tahoe. Rosemary and her four younger siblings grew up in Reno with their parents until the divorce. Her father soon joined the army during the Korean war and felt that it would be best if Rosemary and her siblings lived with their grandmother back in Mexico. There they stayed for two years, and although she missed her family and did not speak much Spanish, she recalls her time there with fondness. She eventually moved back to Reno and finished high school, graduating in the top 20. She married afterwards and had her son as well. After some convincing from her husband, Rosemary enrolled into the University of Nevada, Reno and graduated with a major in Secondary Education with a specialty in Physics and Math. Rosemary became further involved in community outreach and non-profit programs such as Founding Hispanic Youth Image, Co-founding ALITAS, being a board member for the Title XX Commission, and being a Chair for the Latino Youth Leadership Conference. She has two children and is currently working at UNLV with the program Multicultural Education Services Alliance (MESA) as a Family Engagement Specialist. Subjects: Reno Nevada, UNLV, Multicultural Education, Family Engagement, Activism; Session 2: Interviewed by Elsa Lopez. This is a continuation of a previous interview. We have asked Rosemary Q. Flores to tell us more about her work in the Multicultural Education Services Alliance. We also spoke more about her family and early childhood in Mexico while she was away from her family.

Born in the coal fields of Strunk, Kentucky, Audrey Aline Messer Wickman first visited the West at twelve years of age. She moved to western Colorado to help in her grandparents’ home for a couple of years. The stay made a lasting impression because she only returned to her birthplace for a short time after that. In Colorado, she graduated from high school, met her future husband, and married in 1925. They came to southern Nevada in 1932 so that Robert Wickman could find work on Hoover Dam. Audrey Wickman joined the Mesquite Club in 1936 and has remained a member to date. She started the Literary Committee as a forum to share book reviews and hear speakers. She served as President of the club for 1947-48 and chose the year’s theme “Know your Neighbor.” In the post-war society, women’s involvement in civic affairs was particularly needed, she told the membership at the opening fall meeting. “The troubles which unsettle the world today are primarily ones which lie within the sphere of women’s business. They are matters of housekeeping, teaching and health. . . . The time has come when we as a nation cannot stay in our own backyards. . . . If we are to be good world citizens, local, state and national, we must first be good home citizens. These responsibilities call for knowledge, an appreciation of other points of view, and attitudes of good will and cooperation.” (Las Vegas Review Journal, 6 October 1947, Mesquite Club microfilm collection.) The duties of the president varied during those years. She recalled that “I was janitor, gardener and President.” During the wintertime, she remembered, “you had to have heat [for Friday’s meeting] and I’d go up on Thursday afternoon and light that old oil burning stove and then pray that it didn’t catch the place on fire all night.” She continued her commitment to club work by serving as state secretary for the Nevada Federation of Women’s Clubs. The friendships and cultural events which came from Mesquite Club and Federation membership proved to be of lasting value for this community builder. This interview has been produced with the assistance of the Mesquite Club and the History Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is part of a series on women community builders in Las Vegas. The transcript has been edited only slightly for clarity while the syntax and style of the narrator were retained.

On February 23, 1977, collector Mark E. French interviewed local farmer, Francis E. Hughes (born March 9th, 1917 in Mesquite, Nevada) in his home in Mesquite, Nevada. This interview offers an overview of the general lifestyle and culture in Mesquite. Mr. Hughes mother, Orilla Leavitt, was born in Bunkerville, Nevada. Members of Mr. Hughes’s family were amongst the first settlers in the Mesquite area.