Cami Cavanaugh-Rawlings

In September 2018, Cami Cavanaugh-Rawlings was interviewed by Luke Wegener, UNO Libraries Oral History Associate, for LGBTQ+ Voices: The Queer Omaha Archives Oral History Project. The interview spans nearly 2 hours.

Ms. Cami Cavanaugh-Rawlings is a Latina, lesbian woman, musician, LGBTQ+ advocate, and long-time Omaha radio professional. Cavanaugh-Rawlings worked in the Omaha radio industry for more than 20 years. Most notably, Cavanaugh-Rawlings is behind the instantly-recognizable voice of Omaha’s beloved “Cami Carlisle,” the alias she used as traffic reporter for 5 different Omaha radio stations for nearly a decade. Cavanaugh-Rawlings has also been a powerful force within Omaha’s music community since the early 1990’s, booking and playing shows with her former bands Lavender Couch, Foil, Sugarburn, Goodbye Sunday, Lesbian Bus Crash, and her current band, Bathtub Maria. Over the years, her bands have opened for Ani Difranco, The Murmurs, and Joan Osborne. In 2017, Bathtub Maria was nominated for Best New Local Band by the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards. When she isn’t playing shows or working, Cavanaugh-Rawlings serves as a committee member on the Omaha Community Foundation’s Equality Fund, a grant program that provides support to LGBTQIA+ causes.

All of this and more was covered in the interview, which is available through the Queer Omaha Archives website or in UNO Libraries' Archives and Special Collections.

This post is part of a series sharing previews of the new oral history interviews gathered as part of LGBTQ+ Voices: The Queer Omaha Archives Oral History Project.

Support Oral Histories

We rely on external funding to conduct oral history interviews, so once we have exhausted our grant funding and private gifts made by community members, collecting new interviews will be paused until we are able to raise additional funding. We need to hear from community members soon to ensure your stories are captured, preserved, and available for future generations to learn from and enjoy. If you have been contacted by the archives and are considering sharing your story, we hope to hear from you!

If you would like to support continuing the collection of and access to oral history interviews, please consider making a donation to the Queer Omaha Archives or contact us to volunteer with the project.

About Oral History and the Queer Omaha Archives

From the first conversations between students, faculty, community members, and archivists about creating the Queer Omaha Archives, there were plans to include an oral history component in the collecting initiative. Oral history has the ability to share the memories of people and communities who lived through those events with the present and future through the voices of people from our communities. LGBTQ+ Voices: The Queer Omaha Archives Oral History Project is currently collecting oral history interviews from members of the greater Omaha LGBTQ+ communities, sharing their wide-ranging experiences with their fellow Nebraskans and the world through the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Queer Omaha Archives website.

About the Queer Omaha Archives

The Queer Omaha Archives is part of UNO Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections and officially launched in 2016. The Queer Omaha Archives collects and preserves materials relevant to the LGBTQ+ community in the region. Archives & Special Collections' material is available for the university community and general public at both the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library and online.

Visit the Omaha Oral History Blogs to learn more.