Full Name: Gilda “Gil” Flores Johnston
Birth Name: Gilda Flores
Birth Date: 01/24/1935
City: Tuscon
State: Arizona
Country: United States
Date Of Death: 02/19/2025
City: Lancaster
State: California
Country: United States
Gilda “Gil” Flores Johnstone, native of Tucson, AZ, resident of California and New York, moved to Nevada with husband Alex whom she met and married while training for the Military at Sampson Air Force Base near Seneca Lake, New York. From New York, the couple ended up living in Las Vegas, NV.
She began her career while raising five children, Gary, Keri, Jerri, Terri and Larry. As they grew older volunteer work with her church, St. Viator, became important. She joined the women’s guild and eventually became president and chief fundraiser all while attending and supporting her children’s school and extra-curricular activities. She also volunteered at Child Haven, an agency that oversaw care for the Clark County Court System’s abused and neglected children. In 1975, with her children even older and more independent, she was hired as Program Director of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). In that position she was responsible for recruiting, training, placement and supervision of hundreds of senior volunteers who were placed in positions throughout Clark county. Her skills had been honed by the hundreds of hours of volunteer work she had done with the Church, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada and Child Haven. During this time Gil and her husband were also part owners of the original Las Vegas Quicksilvers, an amateur soccer team, that “folded” in the late 1970s. It was during the “Quicksilver” years that she met and recruited Mary Liveratti as a volunteer for RSVP.
In 1982, she was hired by the fledgling Division for Aging Services (DAS) – a division consisting of 6 individuals including her friend, Mary Liveratti, who was later to become the Administrator for the Division for Aging Services and her boss. Gil’s new position was that of Long-Term Ombudsman and she was responsible for adjudicating complaints from seniors residing in care facilities. As the Division for Aging began to grow, so did Gil’s career. By 1995, DAS was expanding into Northern Nevada and Gil applied for a transfer and moved north. She was eventually promoted to the statewide position of Nevada State Ombudsman/Chief of Elder Protective Services. In this capacity oversaw a large staff of licensed social workers who investigated elder abuse neglect and exploitation and a staff of licensed social workers who were responsible for improving patient care in group and nursing homes. The Division for Aging Services had grown from a humble staff of 6 to a staff of hundreds located throughout Nevada – Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City and Elko!
Gil retired in 2006 and filled her life with her children, grandchildren, church, travel and joined the Nevada Women’s History Project. She wrote a biography of her former co-worker, Carol Hunter’s mother (Janice Hunter) and during the last year of her life with her physical body failing, but her mind sharp, she coordinated the writing of a NWHP Legacy tribute to her former DAS Administrator, Suzanne Ernst via email and telephone conference calls. Suzanne Ernst’s “Legacy” was completed in October of 2024 and Gil passed from this world on February 19, 2025. Her friend, Mary Liveratti, wrote that “upon reflecting on the last year of her life, I am so amazed that she spent so much time focused on ensuring that Suzanne Ernst’s legacy would be preserved. Under her prodding, I was able to spend time with Gilda and our work group. ……….We always think we will contact our friends and catch-up, but it seems I never get around to doing it. Gilda’s last gift to me has been this opportunity to again collaborate with you in preserving Gilda’s legacy.”
Gil’s life was devoted to others, her clients and her friends and family. Her obituary stated: “No one’s life can be adequately summarized in just a few short paragraphs, and certainly not an individual like Gilda Johnstone and her 90 years of influence on this earth. Perhaps, though, when promoting the 1946 Rita Hayworth film, “Gilda,” Columbial Pictures summarized it best when they said: “There NEVER was a woman like Gilda!”
Truer words were never written.
Written by Marcia Cuccaro — Posted 08/18/2025
