He was a family friend and it is with heavy heart that we send Kenny Guinn on to his next journey.  Here's hoping that he and my dad are having a drink together tonight at Heaven's Bar.

From the Associated Press:

Former Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a two-term moderate Republican whose tenure marked a prosperous era in a state now facing severe budget problems, died Thursday after falling from the roof of his Las Vegas home while making repairs. He was 73.

The predecessor to current Gov. Jim Gibbons was pronounced dead at University Medical Center, where he was taken after the fall, Coroner Mike Murphy said. Authorities were investigating whether the death was from natural causes or an accident.

Billy Vassiliadis, a friend and spokesman for the Guinn family at the hospital, said Guinn had been on the roof making repairs. He said Guinn's wife, Dema Guinn, found him and called 911 . Police received the call just after 10:30 a.m.

"She lost her best friend this morning," Vassiliadis said.

Gibbons ordered flags at state buildings to be lowered to half-staff and issued a statement saying, "On behalf of all Nevadans, I extend our deepest sympathy to his family and friends."

The state Senate minority leader, Bill Raggio, R-Nev., called Guinn "undoubtedly one of the best public servants who has ever served and one of the best governors we've ever had."

"He was an example of someone who was committed to working with other across the party lines," Raggio said, choking on his emotions during a telephone interview. "He still had so much to offer."

Guinn, a former Clark County school superintendent and millionaire bank chairman, was a Democrat-turned-moderate Republican who served two terms as governor from 1998 to 2007. His tenure marked a prosperous era in a state now facing huge tax deficits, the highest unemployment rate, at 14.2 percent, and the most foreclosures per capita in the nation.

"He was the right guy for the times, and he had the guts to stand up and do what was best for the citizens of Nevada," said Greg Bortolin, a former spokesman for Guinn.

Guinn was elected in his first bid for statewide office, defeating Democrat Jan Jones with 52 percent of the vote while drawing criticism that he was the hand-picked candidate of powerful special interests. He departed ranked by Time magazine as one of the nation's best governors.

During his tenure in Carson City, he overhauled government agency operations, revamped budgeting and tax collections, pushed for a major student scholarship program, fought federal plans to bury nuclear waste in the desert outside Las Vegas and sought to diversify Nevada's casino-dependent economy.

Guinn also spearheaded the biggest tax increase in state history, then returned to residents $300 million in excess revenues.

In 1999, during his first term as governor, he pushed the Legislature to approve his Millennium Scholarship program that uses tobacco company settlement funds to help Nevada students pay for their college costs at state schools.

With the state past an economic slump that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he pushed for a broader tax base and sought more funding for social services and education in the 2003 legislative session.

He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2002, defeating longtime Democratic state Sen. Joe Neal.

"He was a dynamic force in Nevada politics and our state's business circles for as many decades as I can remember, and he had an extraordinary influence on me," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas.

Berkley said she helped recruit Guinn as interim president of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a position he accepted for $1 salary.

Guinn was born in Garland, Ark., raised in Exeter, Calif., as the son of migrant fruit pickers. He once lived in a tin shack and attended almost 30 schools as his parents followed the crops.

He won a college football scholarship and received bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education from California's Fresno State University. He received a doctorate in education from Utah State University in 1970. He taught in Fresno and San Jose while doing graduate work at Stanford University.

He moved to Las Vegas in 1964, starting as a planning specialist for the Clark County School District. In 1969, he was named superintendent of schools. He left the district in 1978 to join Nevada Savings and Loan. He later became bank chairman, president and chairman of Southwest Gas, and interim president at UNLV.

Guinn and his wife, Dema, have two sons.

Barbara Greenspun with her beloved, Hank

(Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas Sun)

She was instrumental figure in the post-war history of Las Vegas.  The wife of the Las Vegas publisher, Hank Greenspun, Barbara Greenspun held her own and helped shape the Las Vegas of today.  She was born in London and grew up in Ireland.  She met Hank at a wedding in 1944 and married him shortly after that.  They came to Las Vegas in 1946.

They started the Las Vegas Sun, built Green Valley, the first master-planned community in Southern Nevada, and when Hank died, Barbara took over as publisher of the paper.

She was known as an elegant lady, opinionated and, most of all, dedicated to causes that were dear to her heart.

She will truly be missed.

From our pal, Johnny Katz, at the Las Vegas Sun:

Even if you didn’t know who she was, exactly, you knew she was someone. There was an air about Barbara Greenspun that made it clear she was a person of high caliber.

You could feel it. She was prim and dignified, even regal. If there could be true royalty in Las Vegas, she was that, elegant and smart and stylish. She seemed from another time and place, when people of her stature would not be seen in public at less than their very best.

I was made aware of this quality when I first started at the Sun in 1998, in what some of us call the “old building” on Valley View Boulevard (though it was not the oldest building in Sun history, by a long shot). One morning I happened upon Barbara Greenspun at the staff coffee machine, of all places.

I introduced myself, telling her I was new to the company, glad to be part of the team, that sort of thing.

She nodded, and noted that she understood I’d come over from the R-J. This is true, I said.

“We won’t hold it against you,” she said, with a hint of a grin.

I remember laughing at that, too loudly to be genuine. It was a forced guffaw from a new employee to a joke made by the founding family’s matriarch. And then I thought that every time Barbara Greenspun would see me in the office, she’d remember two things about me: That I’d worked for the competition, and that I could be counted on to laugh too loudly at her witticisms. I thought, half-joking, that the company handbook should include a protocol entry of how to act when you meet Barbara Greenspun.

A couple of years later, I was promoted to the editor of the Accent section, a huge honor, and headed up the Sun’s A&E and lifestyle coverage. In that role I worked with two of my favorite people for several years: Former Sun food editor Muriel Stevens, and the late Ruthe Deskin, who wrote a weekly column called Back and Forth for Accent almost until the day she died.

BOB TAYLOR Bob Taylor, founder of "Ranch House Supper Club," in North Las Vegas, passed away Sunday, March 14, 2010, one day short of his 88th birthday. Bob was a World War II veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps, as an airplane armored gunner and mechanic, keeping our airplanes in the air.

Bob built the Ranch House Supper Club in 1955. He brought in aged beef from Chicago Stockyard Packing. He cut up all of his own steaks and personally cooked them over a mesquite coal fire. An evening at the Ranch House meant you took a trip "way out of town" back in those days, but the effort was well worth it, as this was the premier steak house of that era.

This practice was continued until he sold the Ranch House in September 1980. Bob said he served three generations over the 25 years. Though Bob has been absent there for the past 30 years, the steak house still carries his name today.

Bob had a love for shooting clay targets and constructed trap and skeet fields on his property. Elvis Presley and Ann Margret were filmed there shooting skeet in the movie "Viva Las Vegas." When Ann was filmed shooting, it was actually Bob breaking the targets just out of sight of the camera.

In the 70's, Bob added 20 more trap and skeet fields to the property and hosted some of the most popular trapshooting tournaments in the country, awarding dozens of automobiles and some of the largest cash purses in history. His innovative NFL Pro-Am Tournament in 1977 featured a representative from each of the 26 professional football teams.

When Bob turned 85, a party was held for him at the Elks Club. Mayor Oscar Goodman stopped by to personally deliver birthday wishes. The Elks Club is also where Bob's wife, Dotti, will have his memorial at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 28, at 4100 W. Charleston Blvd. A celebration of his life will follow. Bob was an Elks member for 57 years. Donations can be made in Bob's memory to Nathan Adelson Hospice.



Our In Memoriam list, unfortunately, keeps growing.

Latest addition, Lounge Pioneer Freddie Bell.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Freddie back in 2004 about his life and career in Las Vegas.  Though he hailed from Philadelphia, he loved Las Vegas.  He and his group, The Bellboys, had come to Las Vegas in the early 1950s and were one of the early lounge acts that helped put Las Vegas on the radar of visitors from around the world.  Today, most people remember Louis Prima, Keely Smith and Sam Butera and maybe the Mary Kaye Trio.  But groups like Freddie Bell and the Bellboys and the Treniers were staples in the Lounges of the Las Vegas Strip for more years than many of us can remember.

Freddie and the Bellboys recorded "Giddy Up a Ding Dong" and "Hound Dog".  A young Elvis Presley, appearing at the Frontier Hotel in 1956, caught Freddie's lounge act and heard him sing "Hound Dog".  He approached Bell about the song and Bell basically said "If you want it, it's yours".  Freddie was that kind of guy.   He did a killer impersonation of Presley and Elvis would often drop in to watch Bell's act and then laugh the loudest at the impersonation.

Freddie was pals with the Rat Pack in the glorious 1950s and was headlining the lounge at the Sands thanks to Jack Entratter who hoped by employing the energetic singer he could control his gambling habit.  Bell was one of the lucky ones chosen to join the Rat Pack in the fabled Steam Room at the Sands prior to them taking the stage for the legendary Summit in 1960. 

He married another lounge stalwart, Roberta Sherwood, in the early 1960s and they often alternated on a lounge double bill in throughout the early 1960s. 

When Sonny King passed away a few years back, Freddie Bell took his place anchoring the late-night party at the Bootlegger Bistro.

He entered Valley Hospital earlier this month due to complications from lung cancer.  He passed away earlier today at the age of 76.

We will miss him and his wonderful sense of humor.  He had a strong sense of the entertainment history of the Las Vegas Strip and his role in defining the lounge scene.  He was a true pioneer.