Oral history interview with Jennifer Lanahan conducted by Jerwin Tiu on September 11, 2023 for Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Born in Daegu, South Korea, Jennifer Lanahan fondly remembers her childhood growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Lanahan had been adopted at a young age and grew up aware of this fact, but never felt different from her family because of it. Her father, with Irish roots, was a retired military sergeant for the U.S. Air Force. While her mother, with German roots, spent her time volunteering at veterans hospitals. Lanahan spent a majority of her life in Green Bay, eventually obtaining a degree at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay in Spanish with a minor in linguistics. Shortly after, Lanahan moved to Hawaii to obtain a masters degree in Spanish but pivoted to earning a degree in legal studies at Arizona State University. Growing up in a predominately white community, Lanahan recalls having complex feelings about her Asian heritage. However, after moving to Hawaii for a year and then eventually Las Vegas, Nevada in 2012, she began to embrace her Asian heritage and engage more in different aspects of her Korean culture. After obtaining her law degree from the Boyd School of Law at UNLV, Lanahan went on to work as a litigation attorney for a few years. She now works as a lobbyist and serves as a board member for the Las Vegas AAPI Chamber of Commerce.
Archival Collection
Oral history with Marclem Hernandez conducted by Cecilia Winchell, Stefani Evans, and Claytee D. White on June 30, 2022 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Hernandez begins the interview by describing the lengthy immigration process throughout his childhood that separated him from his mother for five years, as they lived in both the Manila, Philippines and Las Vegas, Nevada. After switching schools several times while living in Las Vegas, Hernandez graduated from Southwest Career and Technical Academy before attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) for a degree in criminal justice. After graduating UNLV, Hernandez describes attending Georgia Southern University for a master's degree in higher education. He discusses his experience living in southern Georgia, embracing certain parts of the culture, and what switching to virtual education was like during the COVID-19 pandemic. After finishing his degree online in Las Vegas, Hernandez became President Keith Whitfield's assistant at UNLV. He discusses the close relationship he has developed with the president, including how they shaped his own aspirations.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Isaac Barrón conducted by Maribel Estrada Calderón and Claytee D. White on March 27, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Isaac Barrón was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. His father entered the United States as a Bracero. Barrón attended Rancho High School and earned his bachelor's degree in secondary education from UNLV. He currently teaches history at Rancho High School and serves as North Las Vegas' Councilman. In this oral history, Barrón recalls his youth in North Las Vegas, navigating the presence of gangs, and his path to being a community activist and advocate for North Las Vegas youth. He has led volunteer efforts for community improvement projects, including the plans for a new public library. He holds the distinction of being the first Latinx member of the North Las Vegas City Council and Southern Nevada's first Hispanic Mayor Pro Tempore. In 2013, he was elected to represent Ward 1 and was reelected for a second term in April 2017. He discusses being Mexican American, the Coalition of Pan American Organizations, the Hispanic Student Union, the Bracero Program, and Rancho High School.
Archival Collection
The Jarbidge, Nevada Community Archives Collection contains scanned images from seven archival collections and document the community of Jarbidge, Nevada from approximately 1910 to 2006. The materials were collected from various families living in Jarbidge in 2006 as part of a project led by Carrie Townley Porter. The images depict early Jarbidge structures, surrounding landscape, the Elkoro Mine, and residents of the area. Also included are images of certificates, correspondence, and newspaper articles relating to the families' histories. Also included in the collection are written summaries of ten oral history interviews of Jarbidge residents conducted in 2006. This collection contains digital surrogates only; the owners and Jarbidge Community Archives retain the originals.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Maureen Lewis conducted by Hillery Pinchon on March 17, 2006 for the Hurricane Katrina Survivors in Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Lewis first describes her upbringing as one of eleven children, raised in the home her father built in New Orleans, Louisiana's Lower 9th Ward, the area of the city hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. She then begins to describe the events in the days leading up to the landfall of of the hurricane, as she stayed behind in New Orleans with her eldest son and a cousin as most of the family evacuated to Alabama. She relates how she and the cousin were able to leave the city after the initial impact of the storm, but her son was one of the hundreds trapped on an interstate bridge for several days without food or water. She continues talking about the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), about people who were forced to commute between Alabama and New Orleans to keep their jobs, sky-rocketing rents, the inadequate state and local response to the emergency, and the strong response of the American Red Cross. She then describes her move to Las Vegas, Nevada with her son, his financee, and their child, and ends with some comments on questions how much racial prejudice played into the tragedy in New Orleans.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Don Payne, Joe Buck, and Don English conducted by Perry Kaufman on November 25, 1972 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Payne, the head of the Las Vegas News Bureau, relates moving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a child, and deciding on a career in advertising and marketing. He talks about his early career and the history of the bureau. Later, Buck and English, both photographers with the bureau, join Payne in discussing the goals of the the organization. They relate the need to establish that Las Vegas was more than gambling and how their marketing and photographs focus on the relaxing, fun, and luxurious aspects of a vacation in the area. They talk about the large volume of photographs produced by the bureau and the success of some nationwide, including the "floating craps table" and the atomic bomb test mushroom cloud framed between two casinos in downtown Las Vegas. They conclude by discussing how they have expanded their marketing to include destinations close to Las Vegas, including Lake Mead, the National Parks, and California destinations within "a day's drive".
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Harriet Trudell conducted by Claytee D. White on April 19, 2007 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Project. Trudell begins by describing her early history and the powerful influence of her father on her life, beliefs, and politics. She continues talking about politicians that she admires from Hubert Humphrey to Harry Reid, and her desire to work to improve the lives of the marginalized. She relates early education to make her a "southern lady" and her rejection of the concept, as well as her later education in Florida and beginning to lobby for the labor unions. She discusses her marriage and move to Las Vegas, Nevada, her career working for the presidential campaign of Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and the campaign for Senator George McGovern in 1972. Trudell describes Nevada as a conservative state, and explains what she means saying Nevada was the "Mississippi of the West." Trudell also discusses working for Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan, the Democratic Party, her ancestors who fought in the American Civil War, and prominent moments in United States political history. Trudell concludes by describing her involvement in the women's movement and why she felt it was important.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with David Welles conducted by Patrick Carlton on March 27, 2002 for the Las Vegas Rotary Club Oral History Project. In this interview, Welles first relates his family background and the circumstances that led to the family settling in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1940s. He relates numerous anecdotes about growing up and attending school, and then explains how a back problem ended his chances for a career in the Navy and led him to consider less physically demanding fields. He took jobs surveying and drafting, which led to his decision to study architectural engineering, taking his degree at the University of Oklahoma. Meeting and marrying while he was in Oklahoma, the couple returned to Las Vegas, where he took multiple jobs at different architectural and engineering firms, gaining experience toward licensure as an architect. By the early 1970s, he had established his own firm with a partner, gaining a state contract to build elementary schools. Welles then speaks at length about partnering with the Daly Group to design and build the UNLV Lied Library and ends the interview with another extended discussion of his long-time involvement in the Rotary Club.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Alice Hamilton conducted by Dennis McBride on December 20, 1986 for the Boulder City Library Oral History Project. In this library, Hamilton tells of how she met and married her husband, Albert and moved to Boulder City, Nevada in 1933. Because her husband worked for the California-Nevada Power Company, the couple had difficulty finding a place to live, moving eight times in the first two years of their marriage and including a several months stay in the men's dormitory constructed by the power company. She explains what Boulder City looked like when she arrived and her shock at the hot, windy weather in southern Nevada. Later, she discusses the various jobs she held, the first bank in the city, and the process of bi-monthly payroll brought in from Las Vegas in cars for distribution to the dam workers. Finally, she gives her opinion on the process of city incorporation and what she thinks Boulder City and Las Vegas will look like in the future.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Judy Roen Smith conducted by David G. Schwartz on October 27, 2003 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Smith, the daughter of Allard Roen, talks about growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada. She discusses the family home on the golf course of the Desert Inn Country Club Estates, her parents' determination to keep their children outside the casino environment, and the few memories she had of visiting the Desert Inn Hotel and Stardust Hotel for special occasion dinners or family-friendly shows like Jack Benny and Danny Kaye. She also discusses her early education and the relatively closed circle of friends whose parents also lived on the Country Club grounds. She shares stories about her parents, some of her father's associates, and her conviction that no one in her circle of friends ever talked about a Mob influence on the city. She also discusses the family's move to La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, where she finished high school, and going to work in marketing for the casino trade.
Archival Collection
