In 1974, Ida Johnson moved to Las Vegas from Crossett, Arkansas, “a little town 3 miles from the Louisiana line,” at the behest of a cousin who was already working in the Valley.
“He said, ‘The kind of work you’re doing, you could make three times as much money in Las Vegas, so why not give it a try? ’ And I did,” Johnson says. “I put my savings together, because I’m one of those people who likes being able to pay my way. I wanted to start fresh and see what the big city was like. ”
She spent a few years working graveyard shifts at the now-shuttered Westward Ho Hotel and Casino until 1977, when she stumbled into a new opportunity to join the staff at an off-Strip property that had just been rebranded from The Casino to Bingo Palace.
