Gay remembered for ‘legacy of love’

Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 | 9:42 a.m.

James Arthur "Jimmy" Gay III, longtime Las Vegas hotel executive, mortician and sportsman, was remembered Wednesday for his leadership, generosity and "a legacy of love."

"He was a great person to emulate," said the Rev. Jesse Scott, former director of the NAACP, where Gay served on the executive board and helped desegregate Las Vegas Strip hotels in March 1960. "He made the city of Las Vegas a better place to live and led the way for the NAACP."

Sen. Richard Bryan, in a telegram read by Gay's friend Mary McKinney, told a packed house of mourners at Palm Mortuary-Downtown, where Gay had worked from the early 1950s until his retirement in the early '80s, that Gay left the state "a legacy of love."

"He was a wonderful man," Bryan, D-Nev., wrote. "He loved the state, and his generosity benefited all of Nevada."

As a hotel executive at a time when blacks were not allowed to stay in Strip hotels, Gay, who died last Friday from complications of a stroke at age 83, secured many good jobs for blacks in the casino industry.

"He was a strong, dedicated, people-loving person," the Rev. Jesse Wesley Sr., said, quoting a passage from Corinthians, which says: "God loves a cheerful giver."

Gay, the first black to obtain a mortician's license in the state of Nevada and the first black appointed to the Nevada Athletic Commission, was known for his cheerful disposition and ever present wide grin.

Gay also was a one-time national record holder in the 100-yard dash, an alternate on the 1936 U.S. Olympic track team, and a golfer who in his prime carried a 5 handicap.

A native of Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluffs, Gay over the years helped deserving local black high school graduates receive scholarships to his alma mater.

Gay came to Las Vegas in 1946 and a year later was named director of the city's Jefferson Recreation Center, the first such facility in predominantly black West Las Vegas. From 1952 until his retirement, he worked as an executive for local hotels, including the Sands, Union Plaza, Fremont, Aladdin and Silverbird.

Gay, the Las Vegas Jaycees Man of the Year in 1952, was appointed by Gov. Grant Sawyer to the state Athletic Commission in 1958 and served 10 years on that panel, which regulates boxing in the state.

The city of Las Vegas and state of Nevada declared March 25, 1985, as "Jimmy Gay Day." In 1988 Gay was named a Distinguished Nevadan.

Gay is survived by his wife, Hazel Gay; three daughters, Clonie Gay, Phyllis Gay and Betty Harris; two sons, James Gay IV and Phillip Gay, all of Las Vegas; 10 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.