Over the weekend we got a call from John Kaye a friend who moved from Las Vegas to LA. His father, Norman Kaye, part of the Mary Kaye Trio, the first of the lounge acts in Las Vegas had passed at 89. He asked if we could record the service for him. Of course I agreed. His father was a very famous and ground breaking entertainer and part of the royal Hawaiian family that was the last monarchy in Hawaii.
The services were in the Palm Mortuary Northwest which from where we live in the southern part of the valley is like going to South Utah! What struck me when we got there is that this was a famous person of Las Vegas history and none of the news outlets were there to cover his funeral and to record the eulogies. I felt very fortunate to be able to document and preserve this information.
I come from NY where there would be no doubt that an event of this historical significance would be recorded. In Las Vegas it seems like no one seems to care or just don’t know any better. The same thing struck me when, several years ago, I went to the services for Robert Maheu who was Howard Hughes confidant and contact with the rest of the world. This man shaped the history of the world with not only his activities with Hughes but the espionage performed during World War II and all his other accomplishments. No one was there to record the historically significant eulogies. Hopefully as Las Vegas continues to grow and people from other parts of the country move into the area, people will realize that this type history should be preserved. Fortunately we’ve preserved the Norman Kaye funeral service so that John Kaye and his family can view it below:
