Popular civic leader Schreck loses long battle with cancer

While some people after being diagnosed with cancer spend their remaining time dying, Las Vegas socialite and community leader Bonnie Schreck spent her last 18 months living.

A mother of two, Schreck lived to see the smiles on the faces of the hundreds of children she spent time with at the Meadows School, where she volunteered in the lunchroom and library, planted trees and raised money to build the campus's performing arts center that was named in her honor.

A leading member of society, Schreck lived to eagerly attend many galas, fund-raisers and fashion shows, such as last May's unveiling of Halston's fall collection at the Desert Inn -- a fund-raiser for Nathan Adelson Hospice, where Schreck would spend her final days.

A world traveler, Schreck lived to enjoy many great journeys, which included a trip to the nation's capital to attend President Clinton's inauguration in 1997 and treks to exotic places such as Prague in the Czech Republic and St. Petersburg, Russia, from where she returned just last month.

Bonnie Schreck, a one-time entertainment director at the Desert Inn and the wife of prominent Las Vegas gaming attorney and former Nevada Gaming Commission member Frank Schreck, lost her battle with cancer Thursday night.

Schreck jealously guarded her age. Her husband declined to release her birth date following her death. Friends say she was 50, but Schreck appeared to be many years younger.

Services for Schreck, who graduated from Western High School and lived in Las Vegas for 48 years, will be 3 p.m. Monday at Palm Mortuary-Eastern.

Schreck's never-give-up fight against her terminal illness was an inspiration to many.

"Bonnie showed all of us how to face these moments with character and dignity," said Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn, a longtime friend.

"For this reason alone we (Wynn and his wife Elaine) are grateful and will miss her all the more. We are left with a sense of deep sympathy and sorrow for Frank and for the children who must continue their lives without her.

"Bonnie's courageous battle reminds us that we must fight back at the misery caused by cancer and find a way to save our children from such sorrow," Wynn told fellow longtime Schreck family friend Tom Warden, Clark County's public information officer, who interviewed Wynn to write the death notice.

"Bonnie impressed everyone with the tremendous amount of courage she showed, and she was always positive that she would beat the cancer," Warden said. "She would talk about new treatments and how they were going to help."

Schreck long served as the co-chairman of the Meadows School's Sensation of Spring fund-raisers.

She was the force behind the raising of $1 million to support the construction of a new arts building at the Meadows School. On Dec. 8 the new performing arts wing of the Meadows School Center for the Arts was named in her honor.

"Our family is so terribly saddened by her untimely death," said Barbara Greenspun, publisher of the Sun and a longtime friend. "Bonnie was always so up, enjoying life and her fund-raisers. She was a generous individual."

She was born Bonnie Balcom in Boston probably in 1948, and was one of three daughters of George Balcom and the former Jean Hayes, both of whom survive Schreck. George now resides in Nashua, N.H., Jean in Costa Mesa, Calif.

The Balcoms came to Las Vegas in 1951. Bonnie graduated from Western High School in the mid-1960s. She attended both the University of Nevada, Reno, and UNLV.

When she was just 21, Schreck landed a job as entertainment director of the Desert Inn, where she booked such acts as Juliet Prowse, Rich Little, Bobby Darin and country singer Bobbie Gentry.

Schreck later became assistant to legendary Las Vegas booking agent Walter Kane, who long booked all of the major acts for the Howard Hughes properties.

Schreck obtained a real estate broker's license and in the 1970s and early '80s sold property for developer Irwin Molasky. She became close friends with Molasky's wife, Susan, and the two worked on committees and planned fund-raisers together.

One of their chief causes was Nathan Adelson Hospice, where Schreck served as a committee member for the Butterfly Gala and other events.

In addition to her husband and parents, Schreck is survived by a 14-year-old son, Derek Matthew Schreck; a 12-year-old daughter, Sydney Schreck; and two sisters, Stacey Henderson of Bolinas, Calif., and Kathryn England of Sandy, Utah.

Donations: To the Bonnie Schreck Endowment for the Meadows School Center for the Arts or to Nathan Adelson Hospice.

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