Las Vegas Review, October 27, 2003, Clark County, Nevada  
Copyright © 2003 Gerry Perry <MissGerry@cox.net>

This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives.

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LAS VEGAS REVIEW
9/7/1923

"HAPPY" BILL ARNOLD DEAD

WAS CITY COMMISSIONER AND ACTIVE IN BUSINESS

Bill Arnold is dead.  Some writers would state, - "City Commissioner 
William Edward Arnold is dead."  But this writer has know "Bill" Arnold 
for many years and, while free to state that he was neither an 
incompetent or delinquent official, we are equally free to state that 
any official capacity with which he was endowed was completely submerged 
in that blithesome personality, that jovial indivuality which caused him 
to be liked and respected by all who really knew him as a man and a 
citizen.  Jovial Bill Arnold.  He suffered and laughed.  He looked death 
in the face and was gay.  He knew torture and smiled.  He walked in the 
"valley of the shadow" and made jest for his fellow man.  How many do 
this?  How many have the courage to even try to do this?
   Bill made a laugh out of everything that would not cause his fellow 
suffering;  and often, when there was potential suffering, Bill laughed 
it away.  His avocation ws merriment; his compensation suffering and 
untimely death.  Poor Bill!  Why such reward for such service?  If all 
the sour-visaged individuals in the world today were in his place, what 
an improvement it would be.
   Of his home life this writer is unable to make any statement; but one 
of such public disposure could not possibly have been of disagreeable 
temperament in the citadel for which he labored.  And Bill worked.  All 
the time, every minute that he was not compelled to physical repairment, 
he was busy at something.  He did not allow the grass to grow under his 
feet.  He may at times have been engaged in occupations disapproved of 
by some, but they were legitimate.  He was not a leach or a drone.
   William Edward Arnold died in the California Hospital in Los Angeles, 
at 3:30 o'clock p.m., September 7, at the age of 43 years.  He suffered 
from an ailment the nature of which will probably never be known.  He 
had been to the famous Mayo Brothers hospital several times in recent 
years.  Lately here his trouble was diagnosed as caused from the teeth 
and they were removed with much attendant suffering.  He became worse 
and his brother Elks insisted on sending him to a Los Angeles hospital.  
Word came back that an X-ray examination revealed that he was afflicted 
with a split hip bone.  Little of his condition had been heard here 
since then, until the latter part of the week, when it was learned that 
another operation was to be performed Friday.  From this operation he 
did not rally.  It is probable that this operation is what is 
pathologically known as an "exploratory" operation, although the Review 
does not wish to be understood as making this statement as a fact.
   Mrs. ARNOLD was at the bedside when he died and his daughter, Celia, 
having been summoned, was just leaving here when she received another 
message notifying her of the death.
   William Edward ARNOLD was born in Lindsburg, Kansas, March 13, 1880, 
coming to Las Vegas eighteen years ago, shortly after the townsite was 
opened, residing here ever since and engaging in various lines of 
business.  For several years he was proprietor of the Overland Hotel. 
In 1919 he was elected a member of the board of city commissioners, 
resigning the office before his term expired.  In 1922 he was appointed 
city commisioner to fill a vacancy and re-elected this year in a hotly 
contested campaign, being the only member of the old board re-elected.  
Since then his illness has incapacitated him most of the time.  His wife 
was Mary Elizabeth ROBISON and three children were born to them, Celia,
the daughter, the eldest, and two sons, Edward and Albert, all probably 
between the ages of 10 and 18 years.
   With the passing of Bill ARNOLD, one who tried to make sunshine where 
gloom might have pervaded has gone.