Myrna Williams (politician)

Myrna Torme Williams (August 26, 1929 – December 27, 2021) was an American politician. Her career extended from 1985 to 2007 and included ten years in the Nevada Assembly, as well as twelve years in the local government of Clark County, which encompasses the city of Las Vegas. She was a member of the Democratic Party.

Early years

Myrna Torme was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 26, 1929, to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. While her mother was born after her family arrived in America, her father, William, called "Bill", was a child dancer in Russia who had won dozens of contests and even took lessons from the legendary master of the ballet, Vaslav Nijinsky. Coming to America at the age of eleven, along with his father, mother and two younger brothers, he saw his youngest sibling, sister Faye, who was born in New York, achieve fame as the "Wonder Frisco Dancer" when, almost immediately following the family's move to Chicago in 1917, at the outbreak of World War I, she became a star performer at war bond rallies.^[1]

In summer 1923, Bill Torme met Betty Sopkin at a wedding reception in the

• Southern Nevada Water Authority
• Las Vegas Valley Water District, chair
• Big Bend Water District
• University Medical Center of Southern Nevada
• Clark County Sanitation District
• State of Nevada Nuclear Projects Commission
• Governor's Sentencing Committee
• Southern Nevada Enterprise Community Executive Steering Committee
• Sunrise Manor Town Advisory Board, vice-chair
• Spring Valley Town Advisory Board, vice chair

Two days before the 2006 general election, her opponent and ultimate winner, Chris Giunchigliani, presented political ads which suggested that Myrna Williams was somehow implicated in the corruption probe which became publicly known as Operation G-Sting^[3] because she was the only commissioner running for re-election, who served alongside Erin Kenny, Dario Herrera, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Lance Malone, the commissioners who were charged and convicted in the case.^[4] All four were indicted in 2003 for accepting cash bribes from strip club owner Michael Galardi during the course of Operation G-Sting. Although she was not a target of the investigation and was not implicated in the probe, the suggestion that she must have or should have known that her political colleagues were corrupt, has been cited as one of the chief causes for her electoral loss.^[3]

Personal life and death

Williams died on December 27, 2021, at the age of 92, at her residence in Henderson.^[5]

Further reading

• Tormé, Mel (1988). It Wasn't All Velvet. New York: Viking Adult.
  ISBN 978-0-670-82289-8