Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Music 0:42
what's going on good

Dave Washington 0:49
day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. We got a couple remarks to make, and then I'll bring in our guest is Mr. And Mrs. Mary Sean and Dwayne, hey, and they're neighbors. Now, Ain't that something? And he grew up in the neighborhood, Bonanza Village, I'm talking about with our children. Now he's back in he and his wife as homeowners. That is wonderful to live in the neighborhood. Grow up in the neighborhood, leave and then come back. That is great. So I want to talk about just a little bit again. I mentioned last week we lost a great in a lame win. This lady a billionaire y'all and she is so down to earth. I was around her many different times to include, as I mentioned on our show last week, she and I served on a strategic planning committee for Clark County School District, and she drove up in that rose man, and that thing was looking so pretty, I used to call her landlord. She just smiled. And she also spoke when I became the fire chief, when I got my when I had a badge pinning ceremony, there was about 10 different people that I asked to speak, and I asked her, because she was just man, just a great lady, and you would notice she's a billionaire if you were around her, because she's just just a regular person, and cared so deeply. Also served with her own communities and schools as a board member. And as I was retiring as fire chief, I told, I said, landlord, I got to give up the board because, you know, sometimes when you sit on the board, there's different things that they require to board members. And we had come to the place where we wanted each board member to either donate or draw in through some means, or necessary, some legal means, of somebody else putting up $10,000 to the board on your behalf, to the organization, communities and schools. I said, Well, landlord, let me tell you, is retired fire chief. They don't even answer my calls no more. So I think it best I go to advisory or just step away, because I don't have you know when you when you have a title such as that, because I served on the United Way board of directors for 15 years, and when, you know, when a union was attacking me, some of my white, Caucasian colleagues on the board, they said they we, we know you of a man. You are a man of integrity. You're straight up guy, and we're with you. So don't worry about them, because we got your back. If we need to call some of them elected officials down there, we'll do whatever we can do, but they need to leave you alone, because we got your back. I'm like, wow, that's cool, but again, that there's a number of reasons why we should serve on boards, because, again, it gives you an opportunity to work with different people in the community, but also you make those contacts, and those contacts are important, particularly if you have unnecessary attacks. And you know, I'm not just saying this as a black man, because one thing I know about becoming fire chief, whether you're black, white, male or female, they come from your head, because they always say they make bad decisions. I recall when I first left, I had white guys and black guys calling me at home. Why is so and so making such decisions? I said, Don't know. Don't care. I said, I bet you, I talked about my black butt, and they start laughing. I start laughing. I say, all them fire chiefs that I served on, I talked about them like they were dogs. Were on certain decisions that that's what we do, man, as people. So anyway, I just want to give you that little fill of that look. I am so pleased that to have you guys, in fact, there was a number of us old timers having breakfast the other morning when I saw the two Murrays walk in, I said, Oh, man, then I'm thinking, man, they would be great guests for the show. Former colleague, you know, over there, he's with the County Fire Department with the city. I just think it'd be important to have you guys on so starting with the missus, tell our listing artists a little bit about yourself.

Shon Murray 4:39
Well, again, my name is Sean Murray. I have I'm a native of Las Vegas, so I've been here all of my life. Dwayne and I have been married going on 25 years. This June, we'll be celebrating, and we are just grateful for everything that is happening in this. Season of our lives. As you mentioned earlier, we just moved back into 89106, where we both grew up. I was on the 89030, side. So I was in regal estates, not just down the road, but to be back in the community at this time. And as we would say, for such a time as this is pretty incredible. We see so much potential and and the community is colorful. It's vibrant. Lot of movement is happening in the historic West Side, and I'm just grateful to be back, to be a part of it.

Dave Washington 5:31
Great, wonderful. So where'd you go to school? I went to Chaparral

Shon Murray 5:35
High School. Graduated in 89 it was a really, really interesting school. Then we were a part of that whole idea of bussing African American students out because those schools were supposed to be better, and everybody bought into it and and it seemed like a great idea at the time, but for those of us who had to spend hours going back and forth. It really was not worth it, but we were a part of that group. Sure, yeah, went to shopper High School. Yeah?

Duane Murray 6:08
Brother. Duane, yes. Dwayne Murray, I, too, am a native Las Vegas, proud to be a product of the west side, west side of Las Vegas. You mentioned earlier, I grew up right there, right around the corner from you. Grew up with your children, created some great memories and great relationships with them and others as well. Just retired in 2020 from a career with the fire service at Clark County Fire Department. Spent about little over 27

Dave Washington 6:39
years there. Wow. Man,

Duane Murray 6:42
27 Yeah, it's hard to believe now, how old were you when you retired? I was in. I was 49 Wow. Go ahead. I was 56 man, yeah, well, yeah, but you went, you went several rungs higher than

Dave Washington 6:55
that's okay, man, but I bet that check is just wonderful when it hits that hit that bigger COVID. And I know Sean said, what we going to buy, baby? That's what Marsha always say. Spend all the money we got good insurance. The kids will be taking care. They will off. Don't worry about it. Go ahead. Brother, yeah,

Duane Murray 7:12
yeah. So, yeah, I've been retired for the last, you know, five years or so, and right near the end of my career, I began to feel a calling into this new phase of my life, ministry. So, so I am currently now a pastor, okay, right there in in the west side of Las Vegas. So in Vegas heights, a living word church is where my wife and I, we now serve in leadership there. Okay, and it's just been an incredible time. She talked about this season of our lives, you know, we had a we had a whole different plan. We had it all mapped out, but God had, you know, oh, God will step in. He would definitely step in. And I

Dave Washington 7:53
can tell you that when I was preparing myself for fire chief I was getting, I got about eight different messages with the first one from my mother said, you're gonna be the big man down at that fire department. Wow. So what are you talking about, my dear, you gonna be owning what it's called, but you gonna be the big man. I said, I tell my fire chief. She said, if that's what it's called, that's what you're gonna be. Wow. And I got seven more of those, so I started walking around with an attitude of, not an attitude, but more of a, you know, Aurora around me that hey, the confidence was important. And and I tell people, when God put something in your place right in front of you, you got to take the necessary steps to get it, that's right. And I start preparing myself, as, you know, I had a number of people to come into town to work with me and my preparation, etc, etc. And I'm like, Man, people say, Dave, we worried about what you worried about? Well, we just worried if you don't get this job. Man, we we don't want you hurt what? Let me tell y'all something. Only one, a little more than me, is God. And then my family. Let me explain something. Yeah, if they say, I jumped off a building, somebody pushed me. I me. I'm sitting here as a deputy chief, and I'm doing just fine, but I ain't gonna kill myself by no job. But anyway, the career was, was nice, but tell us about family.

Shon Murray 9:12
Yeah. So once Dwayne and I got married, we had a plan, you know, we put the plan in motion, and before we even had a child, we decided that I would devote myself to the home and to our children. We didn't want to, you know, do daycares and all of that. And so we had a business called wigging out wigs back in 2000 up until 2003 when I got pregnant with our son, Nigel. And then once we, you know, had Nigel, we sold the business, and I did according to what our plan was. I was a stay home mother, and it was just one of the best things that ever happened to be able to be a mom and to. Stay home with that child is huge, and so I was able to be with him from sun up to sun down. And now on the other side of it, he is 21 years old, and we see the fruit of that. Even the Bible tells us in Proverbs that your children, her children will rise and call her blessed. And he literally just, he's been pushing me, pushing me, Mom, I think you should show other moms how to be a stay home mom, and what that means. He's like, I'm the product of a stay home mom, he says, and I absolutely loved it. And I think you should try to help other women to make that choice as well. And so that's what I did. I stayed home at night. That

Dave Washington 10:45
is truly a blessing from God, because I'm telling you, you guys know us. You're old enough to know that we don't get to do that. No talking about black folks in general, and a lot of people on the whole when you're generally speaking about the population of our of our country and our world, you don't get to do that because the way the economy is all jacked up, and 47 has done nothing to make that any better. And I know Justin's already given the disclaimer that I don't speak for the university. So always try to add that, but look, that is so wonderful. Our youngest daughter is a stay home mom and one of her children, I won't throw her under the bus here, put any shade on her, but she don't understand it. You know, you don't bring any money, but if you understood one day, hopefully she will the things that her mom was able to do, and being able to stay home and spend that time with them, it's very, very important. And I know there's a lot more homeschooling going on today in our world, yeah. And it has purpose. It has tremendous purpose. Tell us a little bit more about your and let me, let me say this about their son. I don't know him, but I know he's a phenomenal young man, because when I hear stuff, see we are a very active family. Your son did something, I say, whatever he need, his coats, whatever. Let's make sure we put some in that box, because he did something. What do you do? He did something just a year or two ago? Well,

Duane Murray 12:04
he's, yeah, he, he's, uh, he actually founded an organization called clothes for kids. That's it, yeah, yeah. So, so they have activities and fundraisers and coat drives, mm hmm, clothing drives all the time. So that's probably what you're that's what I'm very referring to, yeah, yeah. So that's yeah. He started that when he was 14. Was it 14 years old? So it's been going strong, and he's been able to help so many kids in foster care, specifically, yeah, through clothes for kids. So that's been a wonderful, wonderful experience for not only him, but our entire family, because we're all all involved, sure.

Dave Washington 12:41
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I have the wonderful neighbors for a long time back in the hood, Mr. And Mrs. Murray. And you know what, at some point in the near future, we got to get your son in here? Sure, yeah, because I think it'll be, you know when, when there's exposure that's needed for somebody that's doing some some wonderful things, I try to be a part of that, because I think God gave me this space to do things, and it's important that I always try to make sure that we get things out. And again, one of the most important things about the show, it's called Veterans Affairs, because we do have several contacts. In fact, prayers for Tony Marshall. He's one of our key people who help get veterans get their benefits, but he's been under the weather, as I had been in the recovery mode. So prayers to you, Tony. We want you to know we're thinking about your brother, but that is something that we try to do, get get veterans hooked up with their with their benefit package. That's

Duane Murray 13:40
excellent. That's excellent. It's so and it's so needed. Oh yeah, oh yeah. You see veterans who have suffered, you know, because of how they have served our country. You know, it is a shame when they don't get the care and the and the resources and the support that they they need. So that's right. God bless you. God bless you for doing this.

Dave Washington 13:58
Thank you. Thank you. It's my pleasure, because I think it's it is something that is important. And you mentioned EDI, the Carl Holmes executive development institute is a self sustaining organization that was put together for blacks by blacks. But everybody comes now because they see there's fire chiefs who include myself, come out of that program. And I can tell you this, unlike the National Fire Academy, which you know, is our National Fire School, like Quantico is for for police 47 couldn't shut us down, so he shut the National Fire Academy is in a holding pattern right now. He canceled all classes. That is ridiculous, man, this is our training school. What are you doing? But he's taking an opportunity to do whatever he can, to snatch and and just disrupt people's lives, if you will. But Marsh, and I believe that God gonna make it right. We ain't trying to put no ugly on nobody, yeah, but God gonna make it right, he will. So again, at some point in the near future, I definitely wanted to get your son back in, get your son in here to talk to him about what he's doing, because I think this will be a platform that he can share that in for. Mission and maybe pick up some more donors to what he's doing, sure, and you say he's been doing since he's 14, that is super. And I think mom had a lot to do with mom had

Duane Murray 15:09
a whole lot to do with that. And you know, it goes back to what she mentioned at first. You know, just us being grateful for how God has set things up for us. You know, me having a career that I had that enabled her to be able to stay home with you know, it's just all a blessing from God. So we're and I know you know all about that. So it's grateful. We are grateful, rather

Dave Washington 15:32
Absolutely, absolutely. So tell us a little bit more about what you do. I know the stay home mom is one thing, but I haven't heard about this voice, and I haven't heard this voice before. Talk to us a little bit about that. How did that come about?

Shon Murray 15:45
Well, I have been singing since I was a child. I think, like most of us who grew up in an African American home, you become the entertainment for everybody. Anytime there's a gathering, they Hey, come sing us a song. And so I did a lot of that and and then once I in my early 20s, I went to some friends, and I, they invited me to go out to a lounge show one night. And it was Earl Turner. That was my first time ever being out and in that kind of setting. And I fell in love with the entertainment aspect of that, he just brought so much joy to the audience, and they he came out into the audience, and my friends start pointing at me like she can sing, she can sing. And so he gave me the mic, and I started singing, and fell in love with that platform. And so not soon after that, I started singing at the Las Vegas Hilton with the Louis Louie show. And then right after that, after I was doing that for about, probably about six years, then Clint Holmes just happened to be in the audience, and he was launching his show here, and he asked me to come and be with him. And so I did that. And right after that, that's when Duane Murray comes along in 99 and asked me to marry him. And so I knew that that would be the kind of the end of that who was Louie. Louie, he was one of the headliners at the Las Vegas Hilton Louie Cordero, and he had a show there. And so I did that. And then we got married in 2000 and we just devoted our lives. We literally devoted our lives to Christ. Everything that we did, we wanted it to point to Christ. And so that type of profession, for me, it was not pointing anyone to Christ. And so that was just our again. We had a plan, you know, we got married, and we planned out our lives, and so that's what we wanted to do. And so then I started singing in church, and fell in love with worship, and then I became a worship leader, and that's what I'm still doing. I still am leading worship. That is my passion, that

Dave Washington 17:58
is absolutely great, you know, to have a voice, and God points you from this direction to that direction, and you knew that that particular level of it, or that genre was not for you. So you move back over to the church and leading there that's, you know, life is really something. Because for me, I consider myself more spiritual than religious, and it caused a little consultation with my wife. No, I believe in God. Don't get me wrong. In fact, when we met with my surgeon down in MD Anderson in Houston, I said, Are you religious? Are you spiritual? She said, Well, I'm more spiritual than religious. I said, Okay, that's fine. I said, let me explain something to you. I say, if you wouldn't want or the other you wouldn't be touching me. Because, I say, you know, if you don't believe in God, I ain't let nobody touch me. There you go. And we, we all start laughing there. But Dr Maxwell, what a wonderful lady. And they they claim they got it all, but I know it's all in God's hand. And the thing that I've talked about many times on this show is that God guided the path. And you know, you think you, you have it all. In fact, I was, I was taking this 5000 I've said this many times. No people, you keep that, because I want people to know. John rose say, man, take this. It's a vegetable fruit smoothie. Drink six to eight ounces every day. Did that another friend, his wife had cancer, take 5000 milligrams of THC, thinking like a lunatic, but supposed helps with the tumor. So I kept saying, Man, when I get down here Marsh, they're gonna say, you're good. That ain't what they said? They said the tumor hasn't grown because I was, you know, their protocols for eight rounds of chemo, surgery, then four rounds of chemo. So when I got down there, I said, it's gonna be all right, Marcia. They said, No, you gotta have surgery. And I just told myself. I said, God, you in charge. If you want me to come out here in one piece of lab, I will when i. Came out, I raised three fingers, like, I'm gonna get out of hospital in three days. It took me five or six days more, and then I talked about, I didn't see my mom or my dad. I see your mom and dad. What are you talking about? Dead people for? I say because if you see him, they said he coming to get you. And I've heard those stories. But anyway, knowing that God was in charge of things, man, you just relax and you know, you do what you got to do, but I've got to continue to go down. And I'm also going to write a short story on this, because I think it's important to share the journey. And it has been a journey, man, and it ain't been no joke. Been no joke. So back to your career with the fire department. Tell us a little bit about that. How did you? How did you, how did you decide that as a career?

Duane Murray 20:44
Well, you know, it's, it's a funny, well, it's a crazy story. I had a friend of mine I hadn't really, even though I grew up knowing you and what you did, and others like

Dave Washington 20:57
garland, Garland. Dave used to be with the neighbor. Yeah, seeing

Duane Murray 21:02
you guys, it just never really clicked to me. Like to shoot for that. But anyway, once I became an adult, I have a friend who says, Hey, Dwayne, I'm going over to take this test for the fire department. Want to, want to go. And I'm, I'm like, you know, Hey, okay, I was 21 at the time. It's like, Yeah, I'll do it. So we studied for a few weeks, and then went out and took the test. Well, I passed and he didn't, so, but once I started studying and started to learn about the fire service, that's when the interest started to grow, and I got that drive to, like, really want to pursue it, right? So, so yeah, we tested our past and was hired after that first, blessed to be able to to get hired after that first test. So spent the first seven years as a firefighter, then promoted to engineer for three years, and then went to captain, and spent the last 17 years or so as a as a captain. Excellent.

Dave Washington 21:58
Yeah, excellent. And, and you decided, and I know a lot of guys, when they get into the captain level position, they don't want to go to BC. And one thing I learned as fire chief even before, if you don't catch a captain within their first four to six years to go to the BC level, thing going, particularly when you got a lot of overtime. And then, if you don't catch a BC in its fourth or fifth year time in grade, forget about it, because they some BCS make more than the fire captain and see the difference between the county and Las Vegas. When I was putting my staff together, I told them, I said, we got to offer a little bit more than five or 10% and my boss told me, Well, they need to go work for the county, because we, all I can do is start laughing, but you have to catch them at the right time, because when everybody's there to make a living. See, people still call me Chief. And you know, I didn't. My staff didn't have to call me Chief unless we're in a professional setting. I don't that's not my that's not on my birth certificate. See some people, I'm Dr so and so. No, you're not. Look at your birth certificate. That's one of my pet peeves, ours too. Yeah, people, people call themselves. I'm sorry. No, you're so and so and so. And I always tell people, they ask me how I want to be introduced. David Washington, fire chief, not Chief David Washington, because I always think back to my parents and what they got on my birth certificate. It ain't got nothing to do with no teeth, that's true. So ain't got nothing new. So y'all can't see what's over there, giving me the signal. Man, so we got five more minutes. Man, so we looking good. Yeah. So what are you doing there at the church? I so you're leading. I'm

Shon Murray 23:37
a worship leader at our church, and I lead our women's ministry called the sisterhood. So

Dave Washington 23:41
tell us a little bit about we'll tell our listening audience, listening audience, a little bit about that

Shon Murray 23:46
the sisterhood is, again, it's the Ministry of Women at Living Word Church. And on second Saturdays of every month, we host a breakfast for women all over the city. And that can be that information can be found at our on our website, living, where church, lv.com, they'll give you information on that. And it's just a beautiful time where women from everywhere, from all over the community, just come together for breakfast and conversation. Oh,

Dave Washington 24:14
that's great. That's great. Yeah, I got a group that I've been with for about 40 years, with Frank Hawkins, now one of the newer members. Bob ginser, one of my fellow directors. He was a planning director with the city, but each year for the last, Bob hasn't been with us that long. But Frank and who else was it? One of these other football players, Chris, Chris. Chris Mac McLemore, and one other gentleman with he was at housing Ken Levine, well, we started this thing where men of all ethnic groups, age don't matter. We'd invite people, and we just sit around have lunch, and we talk about, what are your plans? What did you do last year? What are your plans for the the coming year? And each year, not all, everybody's invited back, because we've gone. For as little, as little as four, four people, up to about 60. So it's an invited thing, but we have a lot of fun, and we just fellowship and talk about what we want to do to try to make life better for others Wonderful. So tell us about how you're handling thing. As a pastor, and I know it ain't easy. Yes,

Duane Murray 25:16
it's, it's not easy for, I don't think for any pastor, true, but through faith. And, you know, God has been carrying us through it all. So, so we just lean and depend on him. But it's been, it's been super fulfilling. You know, when I retire, you know, people, a lot of people, will ask, Hey, do you miss the missed the fire service? And I told him that that season of my life, that was a great time in my life I wouldn't change it for anything I loved every day, until the very last day I loved it, right? But once, once I made I turned that page. Mm hmm, that part was over. Now I'm in a I'm in a new phase, and I'm enjoying this just as much. That's right, even though it's tough. You know, it can be very challenging. God never, ever fails to show that he is God and He's in control, and he's got it all handled, yeah. So just living, living, that's an exciting life to me. That's like an adventure every day. So that's kind of how Sean and I both live. It's like Life is an adventure. You wake up, Okay, God, what are you going to do today? Right? It's like yesterday, I walk into the restaurant and your face is the first one. And then look, here we are, right, you know, right. Here we are. This is, it's beautiful, right?

Dave Washington 26:27
The kids had told me that you had, you guys had moved back into the neighborhood. Now, also had heard that you had taken over for your pops sure at the church, which is a good thing. And I think that you know people, people want to be led now, sometimes they, you know, they gonna, they gonna buck up and stuff, man, you know they're gonna have, they're gonna get angry with some decisions that you make, but, but it comes with the territory. I always tell people, long as you're trying to make the right decision and you're doing right by God and by people. And one thing I did, I did when I took over. I told people we're gonna pray for any time we're promoting so I don't care who it is, clerk and people look like, oh, you sure? Yeah, I'm sure anybody don't want to participate in prayer. You can step outside the room, but we gonna pray. This is a dangerous profession to include even clerical folks. Man, they have a tough time too. Nobody doing. Nobody ever stepped out the room.

Duane Murray 27:21
Nobody else you know. Yeah, right down, we know. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Dave Washington 27:25
Well, look, it's been wonderful to have you guys, and anytime you want to come on to share something that you're doing, and you guys sucked up the air and the whole show. Man, which is great. I say I got two, two young people. Man, I know they can. We can take the whole show. So I'm grateful for that. You guys, you know, said yes to me to come, and I know I get a finger from Wes over there in a minute to shut it down. And we are. So this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We had the Murrays, Mr. And Mrs. Sean and Wayne Murray in the house, and we appreciate them coming in and sharing some words of wisdom as a young couple 25 years and me and Marsh will be celebrating 53 in June, June 10. So God bless you guys continue. Thank

Music 28:41
Oh, the smoking. In the air till they hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear, all you wear.