Pioneering Las Vegas bakery owner Harkess dies at 85

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999 | 10:08 a.m.

In 1955, when most other bakers were packaging their goods in wax or paper containers, George Harkess, owner of Gail's Bakery on West Charleston Boulevard, got the idea of putting his sliced bread into plastic bags.

"He just thought that plastic would keep the bread fresher longer," his daughter-in-law, Nancy Harkess, said. "The idea caught on nationwide."

George Robert Harkess, who with his wife of more than 60 years, Margaret, also developed the Vegas Valley Shopping Center, Bullring Bar and Sunrise Market, died Friday at his Las Vegas home. He was 85.

As a coal miner in Illinois, Harkess got black lung disease, which his family said was the cause of death. His father, George Robert Harkess Sr., a British coal miner, died of the same ailment.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 50 years were scheduled earlier today at Palm Mortuary Chapel on Main Street, followed by burial in Palm Memorial Park.

Although Harkess sold Gail's Bakery -- today Holsum Bakery -- nearly 40 years ago, he is long remembered by old-time Las Vegans for creating the sweet aroma at what was the gateway to the westward growth of the city.

"Before there was a Charleston Underpass, you would cross the (Union Pacific) railroad tracks and could not miss the smell of freshly baked bread," state Sen. Bob Coffin said. "It would make your mouth water."

Harkess bought the original Gail's Bakery, a tiny operation at 1021 E. Fremont St., in 1950, and developed it into a thriving business complete with a restaurant. Four years later, he moved the business to 299 W. Charleston and became Southern Nevada's Holsum bread supplier.

He sold the business in 1960 and the land in 1970, a few years before he retired.

Born George R. Harkess, Jr., on June 10, 1914, in Horden, England, he was one of four children of the former Sarah France who, along with her husband, young George and his siblings, John, Hilda and Lilly, left by ship for Canada in 1923.

The family eventually settled in Benton, Ill., where as a teenager Harkess joined his father working in the community's coal mines. George became a U.S. citizen in the 1920s and graduated from Benton High School.

In the 1930s he married Margaret, who went to work for no pay in a restaurant to learn the business and become an accomplished chef and baker. The couple later bought and operated the Southside Market in Benton.

In 1949, after being diagnosed with black lung, George, his wife, and their son, George III, moved to Las Vegas because of the therapeutic, dry desert air, Nancy Harkess said.

In 1954 the Harkesses spent $70,000 to build the new Gail's bakery and invested $80,000 in state-of-the-art ovens.

The bakery also featured a large outdoor neon clock that did not always keep time accurately and disturbed one of its larger neighbors.

"We got a call from the Union Pacific control tower, which gave us the correct time and told us, 'fix that clock. How do you expect us to run the railroad?' " Nancy Harkess said.

She also recalled one Thanksgiving when a thief sneaked through the back door of the bakery and stole the family's turkey out of one of the ovens. Margaret, she said, served a large loaf of bread on a turkey platter, topped with a sign: "I'd rather have Gail's Bread" -- the slogan of the bakery's popular newspaper cartoon ads of the 1950s.

In addition to the bakery the couple opened Vegas Valley Shopping Center and the Bullring Bar on Boulder Highway and Sunrise Market on East Charleston Boulevard -- businesses that were sold in the 1970s.

During their retirement George and Margaret traveled the country by motor home and enjoyed boating and fishing in Lake Mead. They once drove to Alaska -- a trip that included long stretches of dirt road -- and went deep-sea fishing off the coast of Mexico.

In addition to his wife, George is survived by two sons, George Harkess III of Las Vegas and Brian Harkess of Seattle; five grandchildren, Deanna Reagan and Craig Harkess of Las Vegas and Brian Harkess Jr., Joanna Harkess and Brendon Harkess of Seattle; and four great-grandchildren, Craig Harkess, Jr., Chelsea Tucker, Courtney Reagan and Channing Reagan, all of Las Vegas.

The family suggests donations be made in George Harkess' memory to Nathan Adelson Hospice, 4141 S. Swenson St., Las Vegas, NV 89119.