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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.

Lee Gray has been in Las Vegas since the 1950's. His father moved here in 1943, worked several jobs to save money, and then sent for his brother. He bought land, had his brother build a home on the property, and then sent for his wife and children. The whole family lived on the west side, and Gray's father and mother worked several jobs to provide for the large family. He has fond memories of the many youth organizations in which he and his brothers and sisters were involved.

Maurice “Maury” Halfon Behar was born August 27, 1938 in Biarritz, France and spent his early childhood in Bayonne, France. On January 12, 1944, the Nazis took his parents from their home, but Behar was left behind due to a bout with measles. He was then cared for by his neighbor, Marie Cazous, passing as her son, until he was adopted by relatives from the United States and moved to New York City, New York in 1947.

Elizabeth Francis (nee Knath), born in Laramie, Wyoming on November 12, 1931, was the fourth of nine children. The family then moved to Salem, Oregon and Francis attended high school there through her junior year. She finished high school in 1949 in Saratoga, Wyoming, becoming the first of her siblings to graduate.

A street on the Westside is named for Elgin Holbert's grandmother, Viola Cunningham, who was an early land owner. It is believed that in 2002 she donated the property for Madison School now renamed Wendell P. Williams Elementary School. Although from Eudora, Arkansas, a few miles from Mississippi, his parents are a mixed couple, mother is White and father, Black. His mother was treated well in the Westside community but was very private concentrating on rearing her children with little community interaction.