By james art 
2013 RGJ “Home Means Nevada” Song Contest Compilation
We had people sing our state song for a chance to win a visit from then-Gov. Brian Sandoval.
A version of this article first appeared in the Reno Gazette Journal in 1984.
Almost seven decades after statehood, Nevada still does not have an official state song.
Several compositions were offered over the years for official status, but ultimately a piece by Reno’s Bertha Eaton Rafetto was chosen.
In the early summer of 1932, Rafetto was asked to sing a Nevada song at the annual Daughters of Nevada Native Picnic scheduled to be held at the Bowers estate on July 31. She collects her notes, but family matters and the arrival of out-of-town guests force her to put work aside until the day before the promised performance.
Working from 10 a.m. on July 30 until 4 a.m. the next morning, she wrote the song and set it to music. She then slept for a few hours before leaving for Bowers. That afternoon she played and sang “Home Means Nevada” from a pencil script. The song was so well received that former Governor Roswell Colcord came to congratulate her afterward and suggested that the song become the state anthem. Lt. Governor Morley Griswold, also in attendance, agreed with Colcord, as did others present that day.
Rafetto had already achieved some notoriety in local musical and literary circles with one published Nevada song, “Silver Rain,” and seven foxtrot love songs. A waltz, “Kingdom of Make-Believe,” was also copyrighted, as was the classic “Serenity,” performed on the London stage by Madame Schumann, a German opera singer.
Rafetto also served as poetry editor for the Nevada State Newspaper and was affiliated with the Reno branch of the National League of American Women with the Pen, an organization of women writers.
Southern Nevada lawmakers irked by texts
During the next seven months, Rafeto performed “Home Means Navada” nearly 200 times for social, literary, patriotic and women’s groups. On October 31, 1932, Nevada Day, she sang at the Reno drill and was heard by several thousand people. The University Glee Club and the Reno Municipal Band supported her that day, and Prof. Theo H. Post of the University Music Department sang another of her compositions, “Nevada, Paint Me a Picture.”
By the time the legislature convened in January 1933, Rafetto had a number of approvals to make her song the official state anthem. Among those Nevadans who appeared were officials from the Reno local of the American Federation of Musicians, several American Legion posts, the Royal Neighbors of America, the Reno Central Trades and Labor Council, the Knights of Pythias, Rebecca Logis, Nevada State Horticultural Society, Latter-day Saint Relief Society, and Mormon Mutual Improvement Association.
On January 26, Rafetto sang before a joint session of the Legislature. A joint Assembly resolution to adopt “Home Means Nevada” as the state song was reported out of committee that day, but some Southern Nevada lawmakers objected to the measure unless their section mentioned a river — the Colorado or Amargosa.
In the end, however, they voted on the resolution and it passed without a single dissent. The resolution was sent to the Senate, but a legislative legal expert told upper house leaders that the resolution was not law and that an affirmative vote on the Assembly measure would not be enough to make the song official.
The next day, January 27, Senate Bill 7 was introduced and referred to the Committee on Library and Public Morals. The measure came back with a favorable recommendation and passed, 12-5, on January 30.
Among those voting against the bill were William F. Dressler of Douglas County, T. R. Fairchild of Elko, Ira L. Winters of Ormsby County (now Carson City), W. W. Carpenter of Pershing, and A. L. Scott of Lincoln County . Several of those who voted affirmatively indicated to the press that they were not interested in either the song or Rafeto’s performance, but voted in favor of the bill because they did not want to offend her.
Looking forward to something more catchy
However, Senator Scott was more direct, telling a reporter that he voted against the bill in the hope that a “more appropriate and catchy piece of music” would be written and presented to lawmakers in the future.
When the measure came to the Assembly, the first vote was 28-3 in favor, with one lawmaker abstaining and six absent. Those voting against were LF Anderson and Morley Murphy of Elko County and Walter Lage of White Pine.
When the clerk announced that the bill had passed, MP Douglas Tandy urged the three to change their votes as a “gracious gesture” and they complied. Governor Fred Balzar signed the bill into law on February 6.
Most Nevadans know little of the chorus, but those who can sing both verses are as few as Americans who know all four verses of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The full lyrics of the song
Out in the land of the setting sun
Where the wind blows wild and free
There is one wonderful place, just one
It means home sweet home to me
If you follow the old Kit Carson trail
Until the desert meets the hills
Oh you for sure
will agree with me
it is the place of a thousand excitements
Home means Nevada, home means the hills
Dom means the sage and the pine
Out to the silver shafts of Truckee
Out where the sun always shines
There is the land I love most
Fairer than anything I see
Right in the heart of the golden west
For me, home means Nevada
Whenever the sun is at the end of the day
It colors the entire western sky
Oh, my heart returns to the desert gray
And the mountains rise high
Where moonbeams play in a shadowy valley
With the spotted doe and doe
All the living night till the morning light
This is the most beautiful place I know
Home means Nevada, home means the hills
Dom means the sage and the pine
Out to the silver shafts of Truckee
Out where the sun always shines
There is the land I love most
Fairer than anything I see
Right in the heart of the golden west
For me, home means Nevada.
Philip I. Earle was curator of the Nevada Historical Society.