May Bradford was born May 11, 1879 in Missouri. Her parents named her Cora May, but she almost always went by the name May. Growing up, she lived in mining camps in New Mexico, Colorado, and Oregon, where her father worked. She graduated from high school in Carthage, Missouri. She attended Stanford and studied art and mathematics, earning her degree in 1902. She then taught high school for one year in Seattle, Washington to earn the money to go to Paris and study art and was able to spend the next year in Paris.
Politician Oran Kenneth Gragson was the longest serving mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada, a position he held from 1959 to 1975. He was born February 14, 1911, near Tucamari, New Mexico. In 1919, his family moved to Arkansas, then later to Texas. Gragson came to the Las Vegas area in 1932, and worked at the Hoover Dam for a short time before finding employment in highway construction. He managed the Boulder Inn Casino and Dance Hall for a brief time, and later opened the North Main Furniture Store, followed by the Charleston Appliance Center.
The Southwest Oral History Association Records contains records of the Southwest Oral History Association (SOHA) from 1981 to 2020. Records include agendas and minutes from the executive board committee, financial records, correspondence, photographs, and planning documents for SOHA's annual conference.
Description provided with image: "L-R Mary Lou Williams, sister of the late Nanelia Doughty; Norton Williams; Susan Jarvis, Special Collections Librarian. The occasion is donation of papers of the late Nan Doughty to UNLV Special Collections. July 29, 1987." Another description provided on an accompanying sheet of paper: "[July 29, 1987, L-R: Mary Lou Williams; Norton Williams; Susan Jarvis]. Currently being processed, the Nan Doughty Collection, donated by her sister, Mary Lou Williams, contains a century's worth of correspondence from the Bradford-Shockley family. The Bradords and Shockleys were intimately involved in mining and land development in Nevada, New Mexico, California, and Oregon, and had been New England shipbuilders in the early 19th century. May Bradford Shockley was the United States' first female surveyor: her letters detail life in Tonopah, Nevada in the early 1900s. her husband, mining engineer William Shockley, traveled the world, and his correspondence describes, among other places, life in and around Candelaria, Nevada in the 1880s. The collection also includes hundreds of early Nevada photographers, mining documents, and maps."
Oral history interview with Fernando Rocha conducted by Nathalie Martinez and Barbara Tabach on November 13, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Fernando Rocha recalls growing up in Santa Ana, California and in Sunrise Manor in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fernando Rocha is a Mexican professional who is committed to giving back to the Latinx youth of Las Vegas. He talks about his responsibility as a translator in his family with his siblings. He credits his academic and professional success to the Clark County School District and programs such as GEAR UP and Upward Bound. After studying at Hofstra University, he came back to Las Vegas to work with Wells Fargo and is an active community member as co-founder of the Nevada Youth Coalition and work through the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) and Nevada Promise Mentor at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN).