Lorraine Hunt has been a prominent member of the Las Vegas community since the 1950s. She served on the Clark County Commission and also served two terms as the lieutenant governor of Nevada.

Lorraine Perri Hunt was born in Niagara Falls, New York. She and her family relocated to Las Vegas in 1943 and her parents worked in restaurants. In 1955, her family opened a popular pizzeria on Fremont Street. They also opened a restaurant on West Sahara in the 1960s.

Hunt attended Las Vegas High School and went on to the Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles, California. She began performing as a cabaret singer in Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas. She was successful and used some of her earnings to invest in real estate in Las Vegas. In 1968, she married fellow performer "Blackie" Hunt.

In 1972, the Hunts opened the Bootlegger Restaurant in Las Vegas on land that Lorraine had purchased. The restaurant became a landmark and later moved to a new location.

Hunt was elected to the Clark County Commission in 1994. She was the first woman to chair the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. In 1998, Hunt was elected lieutenant governor and reelected in 2002. While serving, she worked for economic development of the state and increasing tourism to Nevada. Since Nevada's two-term limit barred her from running for a third term in 2006, she ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor.