B. Mahlon Brown

B. Mahlon Brown was a Las Vegas attorney and long-serving Nevada legislator whose roots ran deep in the state. A member of a pioneer Nevada family, he graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1931, attended UCLA, and earned his law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1937.

Early in his public life he won election as Justice of the Peace, serving two years before entering the United States Navy during World War II. After the war he returned to Las Vegas and established a law practice, being admitted to the Nevada bar at the end of 1947. He built his legal career in the growing community of southern Nevada while turning increasingly toward public service.

Brown was elected to the Nevada State Senate from Clark County, where he served from 1950 to 1976. Over that tenure he became a leading figure in the chamber, holding a party leadership post for 22 years - ten as Minority Leader and twelve as Majority Leader - a longevity record for party leadership among the nation's state capitals at the time. In recognition of his decades of service, he was inducted into the Nevada Senate Hall of Fame in 1991.