Clifford A. Jones Sr.

Clifford A. Jones was born February 19, 1912, in Long Lane, Missouri, and attended the University of Missouri, graduating in the spring of 1938 after completing his law school studies. He was admitted to the Nevada bar as one of only a handful of newly admitted attorneys in the state that year, and went on to build one of Nevada's most enduring legal legacies. He was the founder of the law firm Jones, Jones, Close & Brown, which would later become Jones Vargas, and he served for a time as a Clark County District Judge.

Jones combined his legal career with a long record of public service. He was elected to the Nevada State Assembly in 1940, where he served as majority leader and chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was later the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, serving from January 1947 to December 1954. During World War II he served as an officer in the U.S. Army with the Third and Ninth Armies in the European theater, earning four battle stars and the Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster, and was discharged as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Beyond the law and public office, Jones was a prominent figure in the development of early Las Vegas. He founded southern Nevada's first ready-mix concrete company, helped found Valley Bank of Nevada and the Bank of Las Vegas, and held interests in a number of the city's landmark casinos. Known as 'Big Juice' for his political and business influence, he closed out a career spanning more than five decades before his death in Las Vegas on November 16, 2001, at the age of 89.