Richard Meade

On Friday, March 11, 2005, Richard "Dick" J. Meade, 76, passed away with his family at his side after a valiant battle with lung cancer. A Las Vegas resident since 1954, he had worked here in the casino business for 40 years as a 21 dealer, pit boss, shift boss, casino host and was a casino manager in the Bahamas and Aruba. He was a great dad and a very athletic man who taught his children to snow ski, golf, play tennis, hunt, ride horses, motorcycles and snow mobiles. For a time most of the people who water skied on Lake Mead had been taught by Dick. "Keep your knees bent and your arms straight!" was heard from Sandy Cove to Boulder Beach. He was the leading apprentice jockey back East in the 1940's and only stopped because he got too big. His late brother Don won the Kentucky Derby in 1933. He was a veteran of the Korean War, where he was sergeant, first class. His biggest pride was his family. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Patricia; his daughter, Kathy Liston; and sons, Craig Meade and Robert Meade; grandchildren, Alicia, Marisa, Natasha, Josh, Kyle, Clayton and Austin; and his sister, Vaye Jean Watkins. He was the youngest of eight children and was born in South Dakota in 1928. His family moved to Thousand Oaks, Calif., in the 1930's where they opened a bar and restaurant called "Jockey Meade's Kentucky Derby Inn". He loved to play cards, cribbage, chess, backgammon and many other games, and was better at them than most. You could say he had a competitive spirit. We will all miss him so much, but we know in our hearts he is in a much better place, leading by two lengths at the sixteenth pole. His family is requesting donations be made to Nathan Adelson Hospice, in lieu of flowers. Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at Davis Funeral Home, 6200 S. Eastern Ave.