Eydie Gormé, née Edith Gormezano, was born August 1, 1928 in the Bronx, New York City. She passed away in Las Vegas in 2013 at the age of 84.
Eydie’s parents were Sephardic Jewish Immigrants from Turkey. She graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1946 where she was the swing bands lead female vocalist. While attending college, Eydie used her fluency in Spanish as interpreter with the United Nations. She also sang in bands during her free time. She had a gift for both Spanish and singing.
Dr. Robert Skaggs was born April 2, 1932 and grew up around the St. Louis, Missouri area. His father was a teamster with a milk delivery route, tried his hand at the restaurant business, and during World War II worked for the United States Cartridge. Several members of Skaggs’s family were teachers, including his grandmother and a couple of aunts. Skaggs graduated from Normandy High School and afterwards attended the Missouri School of Mines and majored in metallurgical engineering. He graduated in 1954 and went to work for DuPont University for two years.
Betty Henderson was a private music teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada and dedicated member of the Nevada Music Teachers Association. She was born on January 23, 1923 in Portland, Indiana. She wanted to pursue a career in music and enrolled at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, but was forced to drop out after she started to become deaf. She married Charles B. Henderson, a civil engineer, in 1948 and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. She had many different jobs in the city including secretary and company auditor.
Count Guido Roberto Deiro was born February 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. He was the son of vaudeville performer and recording star Count Guido Pietro Deiro, who was the first major piano-accordionist to become popular in the United States, and his teenage wife Yvonne Teresa LeBaron De Forrest. Deiro grew up in and around Las Vegas, Nevada and Southern California after his parents’ divorce in 1941.
Jerry Duane Morlan (1938-2000) was born and raised in Victorville, California. He worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. Post Office from 1960 to 1965 before his eight-year tenure as an industrial photographer at Teledyne Semiconductor in Hawthorne, California. After Teledyne, Morlan was a successful general supervisor of the graphic arts department of leading toy manufacturing company Mattel, continuing to work as a photographer and sometimes acting as a consultant for the Yankee Photo Products company.
James Roland Hinds, better known as Jim, was the Nellis Air Force base historian and a novelist in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma on December 8, 1937. Shortly after his birth, his parents became civil service employees and moved the family to Washington, D.C., where James grew up. He recieved his bachelor's from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and his master's degree from Southern Illinois University in 1964. After that, he served in the United States Army for two years.
Florence Frost was born March 24, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. She married Robert L. Frost in 1949 and had three daughters. Not long after she moved from New York City to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1960, she joined Temple Beth Sholom, where she worked as an executive secretary for two years. Frost worked in the banking industry for many years before she earned her broker's license in 1974. That same year, she opened her own real estate office in Las Vegas, Rancho Rodeo Realty, which she owned until 2004.
Anna Bailey was born May 14, 1921 in Savannah, Georgia. Bailey arrived in Las Vegas in 1955 to perform as a dancer for the opening of the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino. Six months later the Rouge closed, leaving both Anna and her husband, Bob, without work, since Bob had been the house singer and emcee at the Hotel. Nevertheless, Anna and Bob decided to make Las Vegas their home, convinced in the growth potential of the city.