Memorial services set for Gleghorn, civil rights activist

Wednesday, March 27, 2002 | 8:38 a.m.

Friends of late Las Vegas civil rights activist Alfred Leland Gleghorn will have an opportunity to say goodbye to him Saturday -- a year and a day after he died.

A memorial service for the Las Vegas resident of 24 years, who served as president of the NAACP's Nevada Voters League in the early 1980s, will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Holy Trinity AME Church, 700 Lola Ave. in North Las Vegas.

An official at Palm Mortuary, which is handling the arrangements, said the family simply decided the time was right for closure.

"It's not unusual -- they just weren't ready for a service until now," the official said.

Gleghorn, a retired North Las Vegas deputy constable, died at Valley Hospital Medical Center March 29, 2001. He was 62.

Born Feb. 14, 1939, in Sparta, Ill., Gleghorn was an Vietnam War Air Force veteran. He moved to Southern Nevada in 1977 and three years later was elected president of the Nevada Voters League, the political arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

He was a 33rd Degree Mason and member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Air Force Sergeants Association, American Legion and Elks.

Gleghorn is survived by his wife, Pearlie Gleghorn of Las Vegas; two daughters, Rena Michelle Gleghorn and Paulette Gleghorn, both of Las Vegas; three brothers, Dewey Gleghorn of Virginia, Allen Dale Gleghorn of Indianapolis and Clyde Wayne Collins, of Sparta; and four sisters, Joyce Bardo of Mount Vernon, Ill., and Wanda Branch, Brenda Sue Wilson and Cecilia Patterson, all of Sparta.

The family said donations can be made in Gleghorn's memory to the Multiple Myloma Foundation or the National Kidney Foundation.