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They've been referred to as the two Jewish mothers who own a funeral home. At first glance that seems too simple a description. However, it is how they arrived at this description that tells a story of two women who moved here in the late 1990s and whose paths crossed as they became part of the Jewish community of Las Vegas. Laura Sussman arrived first. It was 1997. The Jewish Community Center, a JCC without walls as Laura puts it, hired her as its first executive director. She was from Ohio where there was a robust Jewish tradition. She was director for eight years; then executive director at Temple Beth Sholom. Wendy Kraft moved to the valley in 1999. She was a stay at home mom from Boston, who was accustom to volunteering in the Jewish community. Knowing no one and on the brink of divorce, the Jewish community became her life, a way to build a network of friends and keep her occupied just as it had been in Boston. The two women met through their work with the JCC and love followed. Several years later, in 2009, so did their new business, Kraft-Sussman Funeral and Cremation services. By February 6, 2015, Laura and Wendy had married. They had already formed a family with each other and their three daughters, Leah Sussman, Emma and Elyse Kraft. In this interview they discuss their joint sense of purpose that includes love of family, dedication to the Jewish community, pride in the LGBT identity, and providing caring services to those at the time of funeral services. They talk also of Jewish traditions related to death, the Jewish burial society known as Chevra Kadisha, and challenges of their industry. They share feelings about nonprofits and how they value being actively involved in the community.

Whenever Paul Huffey drives through John S. Park Neighborhood he visualizes his youth and the times he spent with his childhood friend Michael Mack, who joined in this interview. Together they reminisced about their teen years in the 1950s and living in John S. Park Neighborhood. Paul's first home was Normandie Court, the first authentic motel in Las Vegas. In 1947, Paul's father purchased a lot on Paseo Park and built a home for his wife and only child. He describes life in that home as idyllic: no war or unemployment issues, a time when the Strip was "meaningless" unless you had a parent working there. An era when mothers, at least in his neighborhood, were stay-at-home moms and children freely roamed on their bicycles. Of their teen years, Paul and Michael recall their hi-jinks, discovering beer, and admiring pretty girls. In 1956, he graduated from Las Vegas High School, enlisted in the U. S. Army Reserve and enrolled in University of Nevada Reno. He taught history at Basic High School in Henderson for nine years.

Newsletter from Congregation Ner Tamid, March 2015

Ivory H. Blue II was born and raised Las Vegas, specifically in the Westside neighborhood projects during the 1980s and 1990s. He describes his early childhood and what he remembers as a strong sense of community. Though grade school had its challenges, Ivory excelled in sciences and came under the watchful mentoring of Dr. Eugene McGaugh, a professor at UNLV. Ivory graduated with a master’s degree and has a long career already with NV Energy. Theresa Harris, Ivory’s mother, was from Hawthorne, Nevada and his father, Ivory Blue I, was originally from Edwards, Mississippi.

As he reveals in this oral history, Roger Thomas is, among many other things, a son, a father, a brother, a husband, a student, an artist, a visionary, and a philanthropist. As the second son of Peggy and E. Parry Thomas’s five children, Roger was raised a Mormon child of privilege and civic responsibility. The banking family summered in Newport Beach, wintered in Sun Valley, and taught their children by words and deeds that it is not up for debate if you will be involved in your community; the only question is how you will apply your talents and resources to benefit your community. Roger absorbed the lessons well. As a child who struggled in school but excelled in art, he attended his last two years of high school at Interlochen Arts Academy, graduating in 1969, finally finding himself “in an environment where what I did had currency.” From there he earned his BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Studio Degree from Tufts University before returning to Las Vegas and eventually joining Steve Wynn’s team in 1981. As Executive Vice President of Design for Wynn Design & Development, he is the man in whom Steve Wynn places his trust to make real at each Wynn property the Wynn design philosophy: aim for a constituency of highly sophisticated, well-traveled, very educated people and give them a reality, a now, that is so fetching, so alluring they wish to be no place else. As he was mentored by his father and Steve Wynn, he too is mentoring those who will follow him. At Wynn, the next generation will carry forward the Wynn idea of evoca-texture, of creating “moments of experiential emotion that result in a memory so captivating and so unique that if you want to repeat that you have to come back.” At home, he collaborates with his daughter on a children’s book that has the potential to become a series; she is the illustrator, while he provides the words. Roger Thomas sat for this interview five days after his father, E. Parry Thomas, passed away in Idaho. Instead of postponing the interview to a more convenient time, Roger kept the appointment and explained, “This is for UNLV. If I’d cancelled my father would have killed me.”