Deaths: Designed Famous Las Vegas Welcome Sign

From the April 22, 2015, Champaign (Ill) News

BETTY WILLIS, 91 Died April 19, 2015.

The womn who designed the famed neon sign that has welcomes millions to "Fabulous Las Vegas" since 1959 has died.  Her daughter described her as "a wonderful woman" and very proud of her design of the iconic sign but she never grew fond of how "fabulous" appeared, the single-word adjective not quite as flowing a script as she had envisioned.

Her often copied (I have several items at home with the sign on it) sits in the middle of a median on the town's Las Vegas Boulevard south of the Strip.

Ms. Willis put quite a bit of thought into the sign's design, including putting the letters for "welcome:" inside seven silver dollars, both a lucky number and the currency of choice at the casinos before chips.

That is a favorite Sign of Mine.

The "Buck" Stops Here's Route 66 Connection

This famous sign was on the desk of Harry Truman during his presidency in the White House. It was made at the federal reformatory in El Reno, Oklahoma. That would put it on Route 66. Fred M. Canfil, then a US marshal from the Western District of Missouri and a Truman friend, saw a similar sign while visiting and asked the warden if a sign like it could be made for the president.

It was made and then shipped to the president on October 2, 1945. The 2 and a half-inch X 13-inch sign is mounted on a walnut base. It has the words, "I'm from Missouri" on the other side.

The saying comes from a slavery expression, "Pass the Buck" meaning to pass responsibility on to someone else.

That Is One Famous Sign. --Cooter