Text
The League of Women Voters (LWV) series contains information on the issues Ardis Kearns dealt with during her time in as a member of the LWV of the Las Vegas Valley, as well as the president of the LWV of Nevada between 1957 and 1987. Included are notes from League conventions and leadership training materials for its board members. There is also information on Nevada elections during the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, Kearns collected material on national issues such as voting rights for eighteen-year-olds and the Equal Rights Amendment.
Archival Component
From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Drafts for the Las Vegas Sentinel Voice file. On Black individuals being suspects and targets.
Text
On February 26, and 27, 1980, Maylene C. Cabatingan interviewed Evelyn Miller McDonald (born 1905 in Alderson, West Virginia) about her life in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also present during the interview is Maylene’s step-father (name unknown) who occasionally participates in the conversation. At the time of the interview, McDonald had lived in Nevada for over seventy-two years and described early Las Vegas as a small-town railroad community with few amenities. McDonald discusses her occupational history, and how her father started the first car garage in Las Vegas. She goes on to talk about the impact of the Great Depression on Las Vegas and how Hoover Dam’s construction reduced the severity of the financial depression in comparison to other cities. She then recites the hotels that were built and the appeal that Vegas had to tourists and divorcees. McDonald later discusses how prostitution was accepted by the community, and recalls a story about how local businessmen rallied together to ensure that a minister would preach the funeral for a young woman who had died, despite being a prostitute. McDonald concludes her interview with a brief discussion of her goals in life and her pride in her daughters.
Text
