The Caption for this photograph reads:  Poised and chic, the epitome of the sophisticated flapper, Suzette Dewey, daughter of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, steps out of her roadster.  Photo credit:  The Library of Congress.  From This Fabulous Century, 1920-1930, Time-Life Books, 1969, p.31.

 The tradition of women as drivers and devotees of the Ford Model T was perhaps not celebrated earlier in the history of the automobile, but their abilities and style and elegance in and around the Model T is a matter of fact and of record.  The Southern Nevada Model T Club is proud to spotlight the women members of the club.  The photographs and profiles, G.A. Villa, copyright SNMTC, 2012.





Amy McGuinness

Amy McGuinness is presently the Southern Nevada Model T Club Secretary, and she has brought much positive regard to the club and its members.  Amy's forward looking good sense began when she joined the United States Air Force two years after graduating from high school in Appleton, Wisconsin.  She was a police explorer in high school where she learned basic police work and crowd control, and if that was part of the impetus that took her into the armed services, the United States military recognized another intellectual ability that began a 15-year-and-ongoing service career in avionics (communication and navigation).  After training at Keesler Air Force Base, Amy  served at Beale Air Force Base  for about six years and spent six years at Lakenheath Air Base in England where she met her husband, Southern Nevada Model T Club Tour Master, Richard McGuinness.  TSgt Amy McGuinness is now at Nellis Air Force Base here in Las Vegas, Nevada.   Amy is a devoted follower of Wonder Woman, and she is something of a wonder herself.  She is interested in fashions from the Model T Ford era and has beaded flapper dresses from the 1920's and glamour dresses from the 1930's.  Her outfits include a 1927 Monte Carlo dress with a shawl which she wears with appeciation and grace.  The Southern Nevada Model T Club's own wonder woman has both a 1969 Lincoln Continental and a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville awaiting restoration, and she recently purchased a 1928 Model A Ford pickup which she wants to drive in its rustic state.  Amy also owns a 2010 Harley Davidson Crossbone motorcycle.  Amy is all of this and simply a nice person to sit and talk with at the Saturday morning club breakfasts where she happily admits to a couple of tattooes which won her a second place in a tattoo contest, a fondness for cooking stews, casseroles, and roasts, and enjoying shoes, sunglasses, and swimsuits. 




Diana Villa


Diana Villa began a precocious modeling career at age 18 in her native Saratov, Russia, in the Volga River region of Russia.  Her remarkable abilities in front of a camera (and for coaching others who are being photographed) are still evident.  She went on to  distinguished university work in the Music School in Saratov where she majored in piano and vocals.  Subsequently, she performed as a vocalist and pianist in Russia, and her love of music and song continues.  Diana moved to the United States in 2004, and subsequently she met and married her husband here in Las Vegas in 2011.  She is a gifted seamstress (she made the dress in this photograph and also her own wedding dress) and a marvelous knitter and crocheter.  Presently, Diana is working as an assistant in the care of profoundly handicapped children and as a home health care worker.  She hopes eventually to be certified in sign language and is now pursuing a university degree.  She is looking forward to learning to drive her and her husband's 1925 Model T Ford Huckster which she will unquestionably grace with her ability and intelligence and beauty.  Diana is the wife of  club member Jerry Villa who originated and did the website design for the Southern Nevada Model T Club from 2009 to 2012.  Jerry took this photograph of his wife and wrote this understandably affectionate profile of Diana.       

Photo courtesy John Craft Copywrite 2012 John Craft and SNMTC

DeDe LaGrow

DeDe LaGrow has quietly been at the forefront of the Southern Nevada Model T Club with her hospitality and grace since 1991.  Her and her husband Frog's home has long been the meeting place for good conversation, good food, and cordial welcomes.  Their collections of artifacts of all sorts, antique cars and trucks, and motorbikes seem punctuated best by the period fashions that DeDe wears ever so appropriately to Southern Nevada Model T Club social functions and motor tours.

DeDe was born in Mobile, Alabama, and graduated from Robertdale High School in 1961.  Her father, she recalls, was a hard-working, good provider who often traveled to the best opportunities for work.  Her well-traveled life began that way with attendance at 13 or more schools as her dad cut and hauled wood, worked in orange groves and orange juice factories, and worked variously as a skilled laborer.  DeDe's life path took her through Pensacola, Florida; Frostproof, Florida; Marietta, Georgia; Idaho; Salt Lake City, Utah; Boulder City, Nevada; and, to our good fortune, finally to Henderson, Nevada.

DeDe owned and operated a photography service that included general, commercial, and wedding photography, helped to manage a mobile home park, was a truck driver for more than five years and was the first woman to move mobile homes by truck in the Northwest.  DeDe later turned to the catering business which she still operates.  DeDe's declared specialty is cake making and decoration.

Ms. LaGrow has a fondness for and collects teapots, older dolls (including Barbie Dolls), and Blue Bonnet and Campbell Soup collectibles.  DeDe confirms her Southern Girl heritage by gardening flowers, tending to shrubs, and caring for her lawn.  Over and above all of this is her understandable pride in her seven children (hers) and five stepchildren (Frog's) and their 25 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

Perhaps one could simply highlight DeDe's official service to the Southern Nevada Model T Club by noting that she was the Club Treasurer in 1998 and 1999.  She does, however, much more by coordinating the annual Christmas party and picnic events each year and helping members however and whenever she can.  The Southern Nevada Model T Club is very fortunate to have this lovely lady and good friend as a member, and we are proud to spotlight her as one of our Women of the Southern Nevada Model T Club.

G.A. Villa
January 22, 2013