Generations: Spanning the century through five generations of a Las Vegas family

On April 4, with her birth at Valley Hospital, Brooklynn Mary Louise Carithers accomplished something for her family that is rare -- if not unique -- in Las Vegas.

That's because her mother, Brandi Lynn Carithers, was born March 1, 1980, at Sunrise Hospital. And her grandmother, Cheryl Lynn Jordan, was born Aug. 16, 1962, also at Sunrise. And her great-grandfather, Jimmy Wayne Bearden, was born Aug. 3, 1943, at the Army hospital at what is now Nellis Air Force Base. And her great-great-grandfather, Eugene "Gene" Scott Bearden, was born Dec. 3, 1921 in a house on the corner of 3rd Street and Ogden Avenue.

Five generations of a family born in the same city may not be uncommon in New England, Middle America or in older California cities. However, you'd be hard-pressed to find other such families in Las Vegas.

But this family goes back a lot farther than that. They are all direct descendants of Las Vegas pioneer Robert E. Lake, who settled in Las Vegas in 1904, founded the first school and bought some of the first city lots from the Union Pacific Railroad in 1905.

"Naturally, I am proud to be a descendant of his -- I was 9 years old the last time I saw him alive," said Gene Bearden, who at 76 still has a hand in Bearden Plastering, a company he founded in Las Vegas in the 1950s.

"He was a barber, and if you didn't sit still while he was working with his hand clippers, he'd swat you on the back of the head. He didn't have a lot of patience, especially with children, but he saw a need for schools for them and he was a true pioneer."

Jimmy, 54, a 31-year employee with the Las Vegas Valley Water District, also holds his great-grandparents in deep reverence.

"I'm proud to tell people I'm a descendant of Robert and Mary Ellen Lake," Jimmy said. "Mary Ellen was a charter member of the First Methodist Church, the first church built here. The last time I was in there I saw a pew with her name on it."

But to Cheryl and Brandi, Lake is so distant that he is more of a historical figure than a family member.

"I work with the elderly, and I meet people who as children knew Robert Lake," Cheryl, 35, a physical therapy assistant, said. "One of them told me he was the first president of the school board. I told her I didn't know that. She told me she knew more about him than I did. That was true."

Brandi, 18, a homemaker who plans to go to massage therapy school, knows even less about her noted great-great-great-grandfather.

"I think it's neat to be related to him, but I'm not too familiar about what he did," Brandi said, noting that she does not make it a point to tell people he is her ancestor, although she says she will tell Brooklynn about him.

Born Nov. 9, 1857, in Illinois, Lake brought his family to the then-railroad watering stop of Las Vegas because Mary Ellen (nee Osborn) and one of his nine children had consumption and required a drier climate.

Lake built the first school -- a tent with a wooden floor -- north of Stewart Avenue between 2nd and Main streets. His children were among the first to graduate from Las Vegas High School. Lake died in 1932 at age 74. An elementary school at 2904 Meteoro St. is named for him.

And one of Las Vegas' oldest families also has a knack for achieving great longevity. One of Lake's daughters, Alice Lake Rockwell, lived to be 102. Another daughter, Emily Lake Nowell, is 93 and lives in California. Mary Ellen died in 1968 at age 98.

Coming from such good stock, Gene Bearden says it's not out of the question that he could live to see the birth of Brooklynn's first child. He certainly has lived an interesting life en route to becoming his family's patriarch.

In his younger days, Gene was a bassist and guitarist who played many of the early casinos on the Strip, including the El Rancho, Last Frontier and Flamingo, as well as numerous smaller clubs around town.

He later was a general contractor who developed, among other places, Bearden Drive, named for his mother, Ada Lucille (nee Lake) Bearden, near Shadow Lane and Charleston Boulevard.

"When I was a boy, there was no Strip," he said. "All there was (on Las Vegas Boulevard) back then was the Cotton Woods Motel (near where the Riviera is now) and the Red Rooster Bar (across from where the old Sands once stood)."

As a youngster, Gene, the son of Joseph Scott Bearden, was a true cowboy. He worked as a hand at the old Wilson Ranch, which now is Spring Mountain Ranch.

"I guess my fondest memory of growing up in Las Vegas was riding horses," Bearden said. "While my children and grandchildren cruised Fremont Street in cars, I cruised it on a horse.

"A lot of longtime Las Vegans will tell you that everybody knew everybody back then, but that's an exageration. There were 5,000 people in town. No one could know everybody. But, you couldn't walk downtown without running into someone you knew."

And, Bearden said, back then you didn't have to lock your house when you went out.

Gene attended Fifth Street Grammar School (now a city government building) and graduated from Las Vegas High School (1939) and DePaul University in Chicago.

An Army infantryman, he was wounded at Okinawa in 1945 and was awarded the Purple Heart.

Gene has been married for the past 44 years to Betty (nee Westlund) Bearden. His other sons, Michael, Daniel and Gary, now run his plastering business. He has two daughters, Sharon and Cheryl. Another child, Terry Lynn, died in 1977.

Jimmy took a different career path than his brothers. He's a distribution service supervisor for the water district. Jimmy is the son of Gene's first wife, Dorothy Jane (nee Belcher), the 1950 Helldorado Rodeo Queen, who is deceased.

"My fondest memory of growing up in Las Vegas would have to be going to Helldorado, which in the 1950s and '60s was a big event," Jimmy said. "I saw my mom become Helldorado Rodeo Queen. You didn't have to be single to compete back then. And mom could ride a horse better than the other contestants."

Jimmy grew up without television, as the town did not yet have a TV station. He attended Fifth Street Grammar School and graduated from Hyde Park Junior High and Las Vegas High (1962).

He has been married to Linda Yvonne (nee Hancock) Bearden since 1982.

Cheryl, who attended Rose Warren Elementary and graduated from Frank Garside Middle School and Bonanza High School, says her fondest memories of growing up in Las Vegas were of going to the old Mint 400 off-road race.

"I'd take Friday off to prepare by packing food and just getting ready for the event," Cheryl said. "We'd sit near the sticker bushes and watch the cars and trucks race over the dunes. It was sad when they stopped holding that race."

She has been married to Robert Jordan since 1989.

Brandi, who also attended Rose Warren and graduated from Walter Johnson Junior High, was home schooled during high school.

Brandi fondly recalls that, as a child, her mom would get her up at 11 p.m. or midnight and take her to a hotel restaurant for late dinners on special occasions. She says she was mesmerized by the neon lights of the Strip as the car traveled to the eatery.

She married Owen Carithers last year.

Despite such deeply embedded roots in the gaming capital, none of the five generations of this branch of the Lake family tree gamble. (Only three of them could legally do so, as the minimum age for gambling in Nevada is 21.)

Gene and Jimmy see the future of Las Vegas being a bright one, with more growth and even bigger casinos in its future.

"It will grow further and further," Gene said. "People will gamble before they feed their kids -- something I never understood. But, I hope they don't stop because they made it possible for this town to really grow."

Cheryl and Brandi, expressing much concern for the Las Vegas in which Brooklynn will grow up, have a different view of the growth and Las Vegas' future.

"I think it has become more violent and the crime will only get worse," Cheryl said. "It's not safe. They need to bring the gang situation under control.

"If I had to pick an era to have lived in Las Vegas, it would have been the 1920s or '30s -- a time when the town had a real family environment."

(Additional research for this story was done by Frank Wright, historian for the Nevada State Museum & Historical Society.)

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