North Las Vegas plans a tribute to a first lady

Friday, March 22, 2002 | 2:50 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Rosel Seastrand lived history, wrote history and loved history.

When she died in January at age 69, the many contributions of the widow of former longtime North Las Vegas Mayor James Seastrand were not lost to local history.

Today, in a 2 p.m. ceremony at the North Las Vegas Library, Rosel Seastrand will be honored with a tribute as part of Women's History Month.

"I was at a Women of Diversity meeting the night of Rosel's funeral and we were talking about a tribute for Women's History Month and I thought who better than Rosel?" said Rosann Sirody, director of the tribute in honor of the person she credits with mentoring her in service to the community.

"She was very special to me and was always there to help countless people. If I had to pick one word to describe Rosel it would be 'service.' "

Seastrand, the 1996 Mother of the Year, served 16 years as North Las Vegas first lady, championing causes for seniors, women and children. She penned volumes of journals, wrote skits, directed plays, kept detailed scrapbooks and headed numerous civic organizations.

The exhibit today will include videotapes of plays she directed, pins and other mementoes from her service to the Boy Scouts and other agencies, proclamations honoring her contributions, her intricate hand-sewn lace wedding gown and a few volumes of her scrapbooks and journals.

Seastrand's accomplishments were more remarkable, friends say, because she had to overcome lifelong medical complications that included rheumatic fever as a teenager, three heart operations in 39 years, loss of hearing in one ear, partial stomach removal and an ankle fusion.

"She was just a leader -- whether it was in the church, as a Cub Scout den mother -- in anything," said longtime neighbor Lorna Swainston, who became an in-law when one of her seven children married one of Seastrand's four children.

"And she was such a giving person. She and Jim once took a vagrant off the street into their home, fed him, clothed him and gave him a place to sleep. He eventually joined the (Mormon) Church and moved to Arizona. She was proud to have made a difference in his life and in the lives of so many others."

Mike Winne, president of James Seastrand Helping Hands, a charitable group Rosel helped establish after Jim died in November 1997, said Rosel's influence was so great she could get anybody to do just about anything for her.

"We put on the play 'Wizard of Oz' a couple of years ago, and she got (North Las Vegas) Mayor (Mike) Montandon to play the mayor of Munchkin Land -- and he's 6-foot-6!" said Winne, an electronics company owner.

"I never intended to be president of this organization, but she got me involved and the next thing I knew I was putting in more time running Helping Hands than I was running my company."

The organization at 2225 Civic Center Drive utilizes volunteers who assist North Las Vegas seniors to help them remain independent.

A New England summer stock actress in the early 1950s, Utah-born Rosel married Jim when both were students at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She left before receiving a degree, but, after Jim's death, returned to BYU at age 65 and earned her bachelor of arts degree in theatrical arts in 1999.

She has helped hundreds of children locally get into theater. Four of them -- Kelsey, Kenzie, Kierra and Jacob Lee, ages 4-9 -- will perform "God Bless the USA" as part of today's tribute, Sirody said.

A proclamation in honor of Women's History Month will be presented by the city of North Las Vegas. A 1987 congressional resolution established March as Women's History Month.

For more information about the ceremony, call 399-0916.