Pioneer Las Vegan Warren’s last child dies at 91

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

Ethel Boggs not only saw nearly the entire history of Las Vegas to date, she embodied its spirit.

She was the youngest and last survivor of 10 children born to Las Vegas pioneer Rose Warren, after whom a Las Vegas elementary school is named.

Boggs was among the first children born in the Las Vegas settlement. Her birth in 1907 predated the incorporation of the city of Las Vegas by four years.

Boggs also was the sister of the first Las Vegas policeman killed in the line of duty, the granddaughter of the first couple married by Mormon leader Brigham Young in Salt Lake City and the mother of a local track star whose records in middle distance running stood for two decades.

Ethel Neta "Big Ma" Boggs, a longtime licensed practical nurse who 46 years ago was reported to have been "the oldest living child born in Las Vegas," died Thursday at a local convalescent home from complications of old age. She was 91, just 20 days shy of her 92nd birthday.

Services are pending for Boggs, who lived in the Las Vegas Valley all her life.

"She was a marvelous woman -- a wonderful supporter of Las Vegas -- and there was nothing selfish about her," said Oran Gragson, 88, Las Vegas mayor in the 1960s and '70s. "She helped me on my campaigns and never asked for anything in return for her work. (My wife) Bonnie and I thought the world of her."

Boggs, a Democrat, said she felt that the two most important figures in Southern Nevada history during her lifetime were Gragson, a Republican, who served four terms as mayor, and former two-term Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, a Democrat, who served in the 1970s. O'Callaghan is now executive editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

"As my mom got older she eventually came to realize her place in Las Vegas history and was real proud of it," said Bill Boggs, 61, a lifelong Las Vegan and retired banker. "She was proud of her birth, her heredity and her pioneer lineage.

"Mom loved the Las Vegas of old -- especially downtown, Fremont Street and the Helldorado events -- but she also loved the growth and was very impressed by the large numbers of people who came here to make Las Vegas their home too."

When Boggs' mother came to Las Vegas by horse-drawn wagon in 1905, she settled in what was then called "Ragtown," which today is West Las Vegas. The family initially lived in a tent.

Rose at the time was married to her second husband, rancher Fred Kesler. Utah miner William May had been her first husband and land developer Holmes Warren, the uncle of late Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, would be her third husband.

Rose's parents were James Calvin Earl and the former Elizabeth Parsons, who had the distinction of being the first couple married by Brigham Young in Salt Lake City.

Because there was no hospital in Las Vegas in those days, Rose gave birth to Ethel Kesler in the back room of Ronnow Clark Transport, a freight company on Main Street, a few blocks south of where the Plaza Hotel now stands.

According to Warren's 1958 obituary, Boggs' birth on Sept. 15, 1907, marked the second time that a child was born in the tiny railroad stop settlement of Las Vegas, which then had a population of about 800.

Boggs' family confirmed that she was the first white baby born in Las Vegas and that the birth of an American Indian, whose name has been lost, preceded Ethel's arrival.

Although other children had been born in the region in the 19th century and early 20th century -- primarily American Indians -- the area did not become Las Vegas until 1905, the year that Clark Transport's Las Vegas townsite auction was held, laying the floor plan for the city of Las Vegas, which was incorporated in 1911.

Rose Warren later opened a maternity home in West Las Vegas, where she was responsible for delivering many of the town's children of the early to mid- 20th century.

In a news account announcing Warren's selection as 1953 Mother of the Year, the Boulder City News reported that Ethel was "the oldest living child born in Las Vegas." She was 45 at the time. Rose Warren died Nov. 21, 1958, at age 90.

As a youngster Boggs rode horses and was said to have attended school through the eighth grade, although her survivors are not sure where she was educated.

The only school in Las Vegas at the time was a tent erected by education pioneer Robert E. Lake north of Stewart Avenue between Second and Main Streets, but it is not clear whether Boggs received instruction there or was schooled by family members.

In 1923 at age 16, Ethel married John Hinman. In 1941 their son, Luke Hinman, set Las Vegas High School records in the 880-yard-run and the mile. The mile record of 4:38 stood for about 20 years, Bill Boggs said.

On June 8, 1933, Boggs' half-brother, Las Vegas Police Officer Ernest James May, was gunned down by a criminal suspect he was attempting to apprehend. May was the first local law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty. Ernest May Lane, off Rancho Drive between Bonanza Road and Washington Avenue, is named in his honor.

In 1937, after her first marriage ended in divorce, Ethel married longtime Hoover Dam worker William A. "Big Pa" Boggs. He died on Sept. 18, 1986. While William stood over 6 feet tall, Ethel "Big Ma" Boggs in her prime stood just 4 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed no more than 125 pounds.

Boggs earned her nursing license in 1949 and worked at Boulder City Hospital in the early 1950s and St. Rose de Lima Hospital in Henderson from the mid-1950s through the '60s.

In the mid-1990s, Bill Boggs videotaped his mother answering questions about her life and the history of Las Vegas. He said he plans to donate the 1 1/2-hour tape to the UNLV Library for the school's oral history project.

In her later years Boggs enjoyed reading poetry, sewing, visiting the Las Vegas temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and playing nickel slots in casinos.

In addition to Bill Boggs and Luke Hinman, a resident of Florence Ore., Ethel Boggs is survived by two other sons, Ernie Boggs of Veneta, Ore., and Tom Boggs of Las Vegas; a daughter, Johnna Hinman Emmanuel of Florence, Ore.; 22 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by five brothers and four sisters.

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