Prominent coin store owner, political activist Carlino dies

In the early 1960s, Flo Carlino, then a successful Buffalo, N.Y., businesswoman, was told by doctors that for her son to overcome severe asthma she would have to find a hotter, drier climate in which to raise him.

Flo and her husband, Phil, pulled up stakes and moved to Las Vegas, where Mrs. Carlino's warm personality and good business sense made her an instant success. For 28 years, she operated several stamp, coin and antique businesses in Southern Nevada.

"She made more friends here in the first six months than she made during all the years she grew up and lived in Buffalo," said Phil Carlino, his wife's business partner and a former two-term chairman of the Nevada Democratic State Central Committee.

"Much of the success of our businesses can be attributed to Flo being such a sweet person. Customers liked her instantly and returned many times because of that. And she always was in charge. We called her Floss the Boss."

Florence Carlino, the only female non-Italian to become president of the local chapter of the Sons of Italy and a tireless campaign worker for numerous Nevada Democratic candidates of the last quarter century, has died. She was 71.

Carlino died of heart failure at Sunrise Hospital Sunday morning, her family said.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 35 years will be noon Thursday at the First United Methodist Church, 231 S. Third Street. Interment will be private. Palm Mortuary is handling the arrangements.

Shortly after moving to Las Vegas, Carlino opened the Las Vegas Cointique Shop on North Main Street near Bonanza Road. She closed it a few years later. She and Phil opened the Fremont Coin Co. on Fremont Street in 1964. At one time, the company had five stores in town. Today, two remain in operation under Phil's leadership.

Flo's interest in oil painting resulted in her opening the Las Vegas Art Gallery on Third Street in 1970. Today it is the site of a souvenir shop.

"We had owned a coin store in Buffalo, but when we came here we started all of these businesses on an initial $400 investment," Phil said. "Flo had gotten involved in this business because she wanted to be a collector."

Early on, Phil informed Flo that she should make a choice between being either a dealer or a collector because a business operator cannot fall in love with the stock.

"I didn't outright tell her (to quit collecting), because no one told Flo what to do," Phil said. "She was (of) Irish (descent) and a very strong-willed woman. She opened the other stores on her own so that she could be in charge."

Flo Carlino also was dedicated to the party that her husband ran in this state from 1970-74. Among the Democratic leaders she campaigned for were former two-term Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan and U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and Howard Cannon.

Phil even took a crack at office with Flo's support, losing in bids to become secretary of state in 1974 and Las Vegas mayor in 1975.

Born Florence Mahan on Oct. 6, 1926, in Stubenville, Ohio, she was the only child of steelworker and mill supervisor Joseph Mahan, and his wife, Margret, who during World War II, worked as a "Rosie the Riveter."

The family eventually moved to Buffalo, where Flo was raised. After graduating from Blasedell High School in Buffalo, she took a job in the candy shop at the Lafayette Theatre in that large upstate New York community.

There on April 14, 1946, she met new assistant manager Phil, who was just back from a tour of duty in the Navy during World War II. Following a whirlwind romance, Flo and Phil were married less than five months later.

They moved to Las Vegas in 1963.

In the 1980s, Flo was elected president of the Sons of Italy despite not being a "son" or a descendant of Italians.

She retired from the local business community in 1991 and suffered a stroke the next year. The Carlinos celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Aug. 29, 1996, with a big party at the Italian American Club.

Flo was a member of the Women's Democratic Club of Clark County, the Mesquite Club and the Daughters of Erin, where she started that organization's scholarship program. She also was president of the Las Vegas Numismatic Society.

The Carlinos are longtime supporters of the local American Lung Association. He is two-time president of the organization. A fund for asthmatic children is named for her.

In addition to her husband, Flo is survived by a son, Glenn Carlino of Parma, Ohio; a daughter, Beverly Carlino-Banta of Las Vegas; and four grandchildren.

DONATIONS: To the American Lung Association to support the Flo Carlino Camperships for Asthmatic Children.

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