Bill Sheehan describes his Philadelphia, PA, upbringing: Catholic schooling, importance of education and growing up with numbers (his father was a bookie). Knowing he might be drafted, he joined the Marine Corps in the 1940s and then returned home to finish he studies to become an accountant. In 1959 he became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). A short term job in California gave him a taste of the west. It was 1962, Las Vegas was growing and experiencing a shortage of qualified accountants. Bill applied for a CPA position and immediately was hired. Thus, began his permanent residency in Las Vegas. Bill talks about his professional life and how he eventually started his own firm in 1971. He retired in 1997. He also shares personal anecdotes, impressions and observations specifically about the growth of Henderson, Nevada, as it grew from a very small town adjacent to Las Vegas into a small city of over 200,000 people. Bill is a co-trustee, with Bob Clark, of the Boyer Charitable Foundation. This interview and many more are possible through the generous donation of the Boyers.
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Helen Smith, born and raised in New Jersey, came to Las Vegas in 1956. She intended to visit relatives for a couple of weeks, but ended up staying. Her aunt convinced her to interview at Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital (SNMH) and Helen worked there for a year. She recalls three hospitals at that time: SNMH, the Eighth Street Hospital, and St. Rose de Lima in Henderson. Helen worked in the emergency room back east, so it was natural for her to start in the newly opened ER at Southern Nevada. She recalls treating many victims of accidents on the "Widow Maker", or route 95 to the Test Site, and compares the more advanced treatment and staffing back east with the Las Vegas small-town conditions. In talking about the medical advances she has seen over the years, Helen gives a detailed explanation of autoclaving, describes the duties of an ER nurse, and mentions the shifts that nurses used to work. She also discusses her own progression from relief nurse to day nurse to supervisor, and comparisons are made between hospital stays 30 and 40 years ago to hospital stays today. Helen refers to doctors and nurses that she worked with or knew of, talks about the types of things children were treated for, and shares several anecdotes and stories of patients and their treatment. She also expounds further on her work history at Sunrise Hospital, with her husband in their air-conditioning business, and as case manager for SIIS in workman's compensation. As Las Vegas grew in population, a process which started in the sixties, Helen notes that more specialists were attracted to local hospitals. She shares her own more recent experience as a patient and gives her opinion on the use of ERs for general care rather than true emergencies. Her closing remarks include descriptions of changes in nurses' responsibilities and comments on her husband's work with the Children's Shrine in telemedicine.
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On March 19, 1978, John (Sonny) Le Jeune interviewed John (born 1904 in Trail Creek, Idaho) and Mabel Dillingham. The two provide many historical accounts of Las Vegas, Nevada, including John’s work on the railroad, the development of the city, and their living conditions when first moving to Las Vegas. The three also discuss prominent members of the community, recreational activities, church membership, and popular attractions around Las Vegas. Other topics include the building of Hoover Dam, the site of the Stewart Ranch, early irrigation systems, flood control, and Block 16.
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Twenty years after her birth in Utah in 1924, Marie Horseley met and married her husband who was an engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad. They settled in Las Vegas, his home town and soon purchased a home for $9800 in the new John S. Park neighborhood. Sixty years later Marie, twice a widow, remains in the home. Up the street four doors, one of her granddaughters lives with her three children. Marie recalls the new housing development that appealed to railroad workers. The roads were dirt and there were no streetlights, but soon a community blossomed. Marie is a self-described quiet resident; her life was about raising her three daughters and being a member of the LDS church. However, she knew everyone on her street no matter their religious affiliation. Today the businesses are gone. Homes have changed appearances over the years as owners have changed. Ethnic diversity is apparent and the sense of community closeness has slipped away for her. Yet she loves her place there, feels safe and secure. When asked about the ides of John S. Park being designated a historic district, she is not all that wowed by the idea of restrictions that might be included in that. Nevertheless, she has no intention of relocating from the comfort of the place she has called home all these years.
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Oral history interview with Sergio "Checko" Salgado conducted by Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez, Barbara Tabach, Elsa Lopez, and Monserrath Hernández on June 4, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Checko talks about his personal history that led him to pursue journalism and photography. He discusses his education and employment working in art galleries in Denver, Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada and the various art exhibitions he has designed including in the Marjorie Barrick Museum at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and in the Reynolds Senate Building in Washington, D.C.
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From the Lincy Institute "Perspectives from the COVID-19 Pandemic" Oral History Project (MS-01178) -- Government agency interviews file.
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From the Roosevelt Fitzgerald Professional Papers (MS-01082) -- Personal and professional papers file. (Transcripts less than 75 years old are restricted.)
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