Brenda Mason was born in Texas and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1960 when she was 11 years old. Her extended family left Texas as a result of pressure from the K.K.K.. Some of her early memories of attending integrated schools in Las Vegas include serving on a panel that discussed the impact of integration in the schools. Because of zoning changes, she attended Western High School in her senior year, and served as class president.
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Darrin Bush was born January 08, 1948 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After attaining his education at St. Joseph’s Catholic School and Bishop Gorman High School, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno.
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Jay Poster was born October 16, 1954 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in San Diego, California.
Music brought Jay Poster to Las Vegas for a brief time in 1974. Jay wanted to pursue a musical career and his cousin was a professional musician with the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra at Caesars Palace. Poster left Las Vegas to return home to San Diego and his studies at San Diego State University. It would be over a decade later before Jay returned to Las Vegas to live and this time it became permanent.
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Don Brinkerhoff of Lifescapes International designed features of Las Vegas casinos such as the Mirage volcano, the Bellagio conservatory, the Wynn Las Vegas mountain, the Encore Casino gardens, and the surroundings of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on the Las Vegas Strip. He grew up in the southern California suburb of El Monte.
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Lawrence Canarelli was born in Roseburg, Oregon shortly after World War II. His family had no money and lived in a tent on the Umpqua River, foraging and living day-to-day. After their tent and everything they owned burned down, Canarelli’s family moved to various logging camps through Oregon and California. His father quit his job and unexpectedly left the family, leaving the 21-year old mother no choice but to put Canarelli and his three siblings in a Pentecostal orphanage.
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Dr. Leonard Kreisler was born August 3, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York to post World War I European Jewish immigrants. Raised in the smaller community of White Plains, New York, he worked by his father’s side. Kreisler’s father was a cabinet maker and carpenter. Young Kreisler helped his Yiddish-speaking father write his contracts and guided him to increasing his prices.
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In 1990, when Tina's parents opened the Fortune Inn restaurant, seven-year-old Tina began working alongside them; they closed the restaurant in 2005. After the restaurant closed, Tina's mother, So Lin Kwan, became a dealer and her father, David Kwan, became a cook at Lily Langtry restaurant in the Golden Nugget. So Lin is the third youngest of ten children born in Quiping to a different Kwan family. So Lin's oldest sister and her brother were the first of the family to emigrate; the brother did so at twelve years of age.
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Jacqueline "Jacque" Dvorak was born in London, England July 26, 1944. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1946. Then, in 1953 they moved to the United States, settling in Long Beach, California where Jacque’s brother was born. In 1957, the Dvorak family relocated to Las Vegas when Jacque’s father, Sam, opened a 24-hour barbeque restaurant in Market Town with his brother Harry.
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