Mayme Stocker Tony Cornero Tom Williams Ernie Cragin James Cashman Sr. It fell to young Florence Jones, left, to cover celebrity weddings. They supposedly wed impulsively after a romantic moonlight ride in the Nevada desert. Nevada State Museum Florence Lee Jones and her husband, John Cahlan, in their new home at Christmas 1947. Nevada State Museum Florence Lee Jones and advertising salesman Bill Bailey were proud of all the work they did for the Review-Journal's 1955 special edition commemorating 50th anniversary of the city.
Historians say it's the only surviving source for some of the region's early history.
Florence Lee Jones had a chance to be Las Vegas' most sensational journalist, jerking tears with tales of women wronged and justice miscarried. She was the first important female journalist in Southern Nevada, covering big, hard news stories in years when most women newswriters were still confined to tea-party beats. I think I helped make the town happen. Born in Missouri in 1910, Jones spent some of her teen years in Sumatra, where her father was teaching Shell Oil crews how to use new rotary drills. Living in small camps newly carved from the jungle, the Jones kids were taught to smell the outside air the moment they opened a door.