Obituary: Beloved Governor’s Mansion worker dies

Thursday, March 22, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

Ella Mae Dawson, who worked as a domestic in the Governor's Mansion during the administration of Mike O'Callaghan and in the process became like a member of his family, died Monday. She was 82.

Services for the longtime Nevada resident, who also worked 20 years in the kitchen of the old Dunes hotel, will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Grace Immanuel Baptist Church, 809 W. Bartlett Ave. Burial will be in Palm Memorial Park.

"She was a very special lady who brought her Southern family values with her to Nevada," said O'Callaghan, who today is executive editor and chairman of the Sun. "She had a lot of hurts during her life but never was bitter. Ellie lived with us and became a loved member of our family."

A soft-spoken woman who early in life developed a strong work ethic, Dawson said of her service to the governor and his wife, Carolyn, in a 1973 interview: "The O'Callaghans are just good, regular people. I feel comfortable with them because they turned me loose and gave me the freedom to do what I want."

Her duties included cleaning, preparing meals for the family, grocery shopping and back-to-school shopping for the O'Callaghans' two youngest of five children, Tim and Brian, who Dawson affectionately called "my little boys."

Born Ella Mae Randall on May 12, 1918, in Boston, Ga., she was was one of eight children of Tom Randall and the former Sweetie Hill.

Prior to getting the job in the Governor's Mansion, she worked for the Dunes on the site of where the Bellagio now stands. In the late 1970s she returned to the Dunes where she worked until her retirement.

She is survived by a son, Redge Dawson of Phoenix; a daughter, Nellie Williams of Las Vegas; a stepson, Rick Dawson of Oakland, Calif.; two sisters, Olivia Dorsey of Philadelphia and Annie Grace Luke of Thomasville, Ga.; a brother, Willie Randall of Thomasville; three grandchildren, Daryl Williams of Las Vegas, Junai Dawson of Oakland, and Troy Dawson of Des Moines, Wash.; and four great grandchildren.