Myram Borders

Myram Borders
Born (1936-05-21)May 21, 1936
Kentucky
Occupation News reporter
Genre Journalism
Literary movement Mob era

Myram Borders (born in Kentucky in 1936) is an American journalist, a former United Press International reporter, and the wire service's Las Vegas bureau manager from 1965 to 1990. Upon retirement, she was appointed Nevada commissioner of consumer affairs and, after two years, in 1992 was named chief of the Las Vegas News Bureau, a post she held for a decade.

Education

Borders moved with her family from Kentucky to Nevada in 1940 when she was 4 years old. She attended the historic Fifth Street School,[1] and graduated in 1954 from Las Vegas High School (now a performing arts academy) in downtown Las Vegas, where she reported for the school newspaper. On a Harold's Club scholarship, she graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno's school of journalism with a bachelor of arts degree.[2]

Career

During her senior year at UNR, she interned at United Press International in Reno and, upon graduation, went to work for UPI full-time, later transferring to the San Diego bureau, then Los Angeles and, ultimately, to Las Vegas as the bureau manager, from the time it was mob controlled into the corporate era of the 1990s.[3] After leaving UPI, she opened the first full-time Las Vegas office for Gannet Newspapers before accepting her appointment as Nevada commissioner of Consumer Affairs. After that short stint, she headed the Las Vegas News Bureau before retiring in 2002.[4]

While with UPI, Borders covered the Beatles' arrival in Las Vegas in 1964 when they performed at the Las Vegas Convention Center. She also broke the news story of Elvis Presley's 1967 wedding to girlfriend Priscilla at the Aladdin hotel-casino chapel after getting a tip. She went to the Aladdin and waited all night. At 8 o'clock in the morning, she noticed a Nevada Supreme Court justice walking into the casino and asked if he was there to marry Elvis, and he confirmed it. She was first reporter to file the story about the wedding.[5]

In 1969, she wrote a review of Presley's opening night at the International Hotel in Las Vegas for UPI. In the article titled "Elvis Swings Into Action in Vegas," she wrote, "During the performance, Presley went through 15 selections including some of his top records, 'Blue Suede Shoes,' 'Love Me Tender,' 'Jailhouse Rock,' and 'Heartbreak Hotel.' He also strummed his guitar and slithered through his recent recording, 'In The Ghetto'."[6]

In 1981, she was the first reporter on the scene of the car bombing involving mobster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. "As I drove by Tony Roma's and Marie Callender's, I heard this huge boom," Borders told the Las Vegas Sun. "A guy was getting out of a car sort of smoky and his hair was standing on end." As she approached, she told the paper, Rosenthal shouted, "They're trying to kill me, they're trying to kill me!" Rosenthal survived the assassination attempt, after suffering burns, because of a steel plate installed under the driver's seat in his Cadillac Eldorado.[7]

Affiliations

She served three terms as president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and was instrumental in helping get Nevada's open meeting law on the books, which passed at the 11th hour by the Nevada Legislature and was signed into law in 1977 by then-Gov. Mike O'Callaghan.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Nevada Magazine, "Fifth Street Memories: Renovation of historic Las Vegas school prompts search for alumni, July/August 2008
  2. ↑ Las Vegas High School Alumni Association, Myram Borders (Class of 1954)
  3. ↑ KNPR Interview, Myram Borders
  4. ↑ Las Vegas Sun, "Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Borders is still real news," January 24, 2002
  5. ↑ Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Call in wee hours unveiled Elvis tale," September 26, 2008
  6. ↑ http://www.elvis-collectors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81696&p=1262444#p1262444
  7. ↑ "Las Vegas Sun, "Mob-era gambling boss was 'Old Vegas'," October 16, 2008
  8. ↑ Las Vegas CityLife, "Saying goodbye to 'Governor Mike'," March 10, 2004
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