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Oral history interview with Rachel Coleman conducted by Claytee White on July 24, 1996 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Rachel Coleman discusses her move to Las Vegas, Nevada and her first job in town, washing glasses at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino. She continues speaking about her work experience including how she was promoted to executive housekeeper at the Hacienda Resort Hotel and Casino in 1969. She then talks about how she became a representative for the Culinary Union Local 226 in 1973, how she became department head of the Union in 1981, and her experience running for Union president in 1987. Finally, Coleman recalls the atmosphere of Las Vegas from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Archival Collection
Plot plan of the proposed Lady Luck, later named the Hacienda. Inverted negative film transparency.
Site Name: Hacienda
Address: 3590 Las Vegas Boulevard South
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Oral history interview with Coleen York Wilson conducted by Claytee D. White on June 4, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Wilson talks about growing up in Fordyce, Arkansas before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1953 at the age of eighteen. She mentions that her parents had moved to Nevada in 1940 to work at Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI), living in a trailer before returning to Fordyce two years later. She then discusses moving to Las Vegas to join an older sister and relates that she did not remember any discrimination in seating or eating meals during her bus trip. After this, Wilson lists the jobs she held in Las Vegas before her retirement in 1984, including work at the Las Vegas Cleaners, serving as a school crossing guard, and working as a housekeeping supervisor at the Stardust Resort Hotel, the Hacienda Resort Hotel, and Circus Circus Hotel and Casino before taking a job at the Nevada Test Site. She also talks about her family, her church activities, and her regret at not attending college.
Archival Collection
Preliminary study of various aspects of the proposed Hacienda. Drawn by: G.G.P. Original medium: pencil on paper.
Site Name: Hacienda
Address: 3590 Las Vegas Boulevard South
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