Ralph Vandersnick was born March 16, 1927 in Annawan, Illinois, a small town that was 150 miles from Chicago, Illinois. His mother died when he was five, and his family moved to Atkinson, Illinois in 1934. He grew up in the Great Depression and was drafted into World War II when he was 17, missing high school graduation by a year.
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Milton I. Schwartz was born in 1921 and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1946 to help build the Flamingo Hotel and Casino. After moving back to New York for a while, Schwartz returned to Las Vegas in 1971 to found Valley Hospital and serve as its board chairman. He was involved in many businesses in Las Vegas and worked in real estate development. He also owned and operated a cable television company called MISCO, Inc. and was a partner and director of Yellow, Checker, and Star cab companies.
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William W. Sullivan was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He completed his doctorate over a twelve year period at University of Utah. He helped open the Minority Center there, and was eventually recruited to teach in Missoula, Montana, where he stayed for three years.
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James Jones Jr. was born September 11, 1939 in Waverly, Louisiana. In June 1959, James Jones looked forward to moving to Las Vegas, away from farming in Waverly, Louisiana. His first job was at Gilbert's Grocery Store on D Street. Within a couple of years, he secured a position in the mailroom for REECO (Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company) at the Nevada Test Site. He would work there for over three decades. Among his memories is a four-hour job at the Blue Onion as well as singing with the choir gathered the day Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Laura Belle Kelch was born September 1, 1912, in Cincinnati, Ohio and came to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1939. Before moving West, she attended the University of Cincinnati and pursued a degree in the field of Applied Arts. Kelch later lived in New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California before finally making Las Vegas her home.
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Dr. Fiona Kelley was born and raised in Connecticut. Her parents were both teachers (though her mother quit teaching to raise their two daughters), and the family would take European vacations every summer, exploring castles and enjoying picnic lunches.
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Doris Shoong Lee was born in 1919 in San Francisco, California and was the second of three children. Her family moved to Oakland, California and that’s where she grew up. After Shoong Lee graduated from high school she went on to attend Berkeley University along with her sister. Her father became very interested in the university after both daughters spent time there and consequently he created a scholarship fund for Chinese students. The Lee family then decided to move to China and Shoong Lee and her sister enrolled in Ling Nam University.
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Judge Jack Lehman was born in the late 1920s in Germany. He was sent to the United States of America with his sister in 1935 and after a series of living situations including an orphanage in New York, they were adopted by the Lehman family in Lake Arrowhead, California. As a young boy, he wanted to become a lawyer.
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Ira David Sternberg, host of “Talk About Las Vegas,” interviews the celebrities, entertainers, writers and personalities who make Las Vegas the most exciting city in the world.His career includes decades of professional broadcasting as well as public relations, writing and communications. Ira was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 1998. He previously hosted a long-running weekly talk show, “Las Vegas Notebook.”
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