“Probably one of her best characteristics was she loved people and people loved her. “Laura just had a knack,” said Scheer, now general manager of Ute Mountain Casino Hotel in Towaoc, Colorado. Eventually, Thornton created host programs at Whiskey Pete’s, as well as the then-Primadonna Resort and Casino and Buffalo Bill’s. In 1982, she became assistant slot supervisor at Whiskey Pete’s in Primm. Her career in gaming continued at a number of area casinos, including the Aladdin and Silver City, where she was a slot manager. During the ’50s, Thornton, then married with children, began working in the gift shop of the Fortune Club on Fremont Street, then became a change girl there. Thornton’s mother also worked in the casino industry. (Both have Clark County schools named after them.) Her grandson, William King, said his grandmother’s family has lived in Las Vegas for several generations and includes among its members Ernest May, who in 1933 became the first Las Vegas police officer to die in the line of duty, and Rose Warren, a pioneer Las Vegas midwife. 3, 1930, to William George Sansom and Rosetta Fay May. “To us,” Scheer said, “Laura was our legend.”

So does “legend,” he said, recalling the times that gaming magazines would run stories about “amazing women that have done amazing things in gaming and definitely are legends.” Rick Scheer, who worked with Thornton from 1988 until 1996 and knew her since the late ’70s, said the word “pioneer” fits Thornton well. Laura Thornton worked in Southern Nevada’s casino industry for 54 years, starting out as a change girl and working her way up to executive hostess at then-Primadonna Casino Resorts during an era when female gaming executives weren’t as common as today. Laura Thornton (Courtesy Thornton family)

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