Nellida Fares Hickey

To all our family and friends — it is with great sorrow to announce the news of the passing of Nellida Fares Hickey on Sunday, June 14th after sunset, at Nathan Adelson Hospice in Summerlin; due to natural causes. Three months shy of her 91st birthday, Nellida was surrounded by her son Donald and best friend Jeannie Reid.

While the last 30 days of her life weren’t easy, she fought to the very end. Although contending with a few medical conditions, she maintained a high quality of life for 90 years. Blessed, she didn’t suffer from any prolonged illness or pain. She was very aware and lucent until the peaceful end. She was able to visit with her

friend Margarita, and contribute to FaceTime calls on her iPhone with her sisters Clotilde, Hoda and SouSou.

“Nellie” as she was called by family and friends, was everyone’s favorite bubbly Aunt/Tante or friend. She possessed an amazing ear for listening, a shoulder to lean on, an ancient Lebanese saying to fit the moment or a joke to make you laugh. A true beacon of light and home, to all who knew her.

It has to be mentioned - family, friends and simply passing acquaintances will all agree that she in part, will be remembered for her cooking! Whether it was some basic or not so basic Lebanese dish, her famous spaghetti bolognese or her very American (and dare say “southern-style”) Thanksgiving turkey, each was truly exceptional and a source for togetherness for all who came to break bread.

Nellida was born in 1935 in the tiny village of Bteddine al Loqch (basically “Pine Cone” in retracted English) in the southern Lebanese mountains to Fares and Linda Abu Sleiman. Sometime around her 9th year during WWII, she survived a near direct shelling from the French Vichy Army as she was walking to another

village nearby. Caught in sudden crossfire with French Resistance. Miraculously, she did not sustain any major injuries. And like for most Lebanese, war and conflict remained as factor and source of sadness, throughout her life.

After high school, she worked various jobs in Beirut, helping her family in the new post-war independent Lebanese Republic. Finding herself eventually working at Pan American Airlines in base operations in Beirut. A career path that many in her family would follow including her uncle, Joe Maroun, who flew for them in their heyday. And now of course her only son Donald, an active airline pilot for Allegiant Air.

In 1968 Paul Lenardean Hickey, an American ex-pat living in Beirut’s “golden era” met her and fell in love. They married in 1969. By 1970, life and economy would take a turn, with the newlyweds moving from “The Paris of the Middle East” a city at the core of human civilization, to the “bustling metropolis” of Blue Diamond, Nevada out in the Mojave Desert, into a small two bedroom home with her in-laws who were originally from Ada, Oklahoma. This was quite a culture shock for Nellie and for a time, brought her great longing for home.

Though in later years, she came to adore those early memories of Southern Nevada. They became the source of many of her funniest life stories featuring some VERY salty and comical encounters with Paul’s brother, Herman Hickey.

Eventually they moved to Midtown and then Downtown Las Vegas and brought Donald Hickey into this world in May of 1972. Through the 1970’s and 80’s she reconnected with her sister Clotilde her husband Rafic Haddad and the rest of her core family, including her parents and two brothers Tony and Joseph. Which for a time, all lived on the same block in Downtown Las Vegas, near what was

Charleston and Desert Lane, just west of the I-15.

After a few years of being a housewife and mother, Nellie found herself working at the department store Broadway Southwest which eventually became Macy’s for 28 years. There she met her boss, and life long loving champion, the aforementioned Jeannie Reid. Herself an immigrant of France who loved nothing more than to get Nellie stirred up in French, which Nellie spoke along with Arabic and English.

After Paul’s passing in 2008, Nellie found herself back in Downtown Vegas, purchasing a small home in the nearby neighborhood of Rancho Manor. And while retired for a few years at this point, it cannot be stressed enough, what incredible support she offered Donald, as his career began to fly him around the world for weeks at a time. Much like the team manager of a Formula 1 pit crew, she was always checking that he had all the checklist items that make the very fragile life of a pilot actually fly. She continued to enrich and touch and yes still… FEED the souls and tummies of family and friends until the very end.

Nellida is preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Tony and Joseph and her husband Paul. She leaves behind her son Donald, Sisters Clotilde, Hoda and SouSou, umpteen nieces and nephews and even a few of her own aunts both in the Bay Area of California and back home in Lebanon.

Her funeral services will be held on July 8th, 2026 at Saint Sharbel Maronite Catholic Church inside the chapel. All who knew her are encouraged to come.

Viewing at Noon

Mass at 1pm

The mercy meal will take place after services at the nearby, Saint Gabriel Byzantine Catholic Church. She will be laid to rest on the following day at 10:40 AM with her husband, in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, Nevada.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to St. Sharbel Catholic Church 10325 S Rancho Destino Rd. LV, NV 89183.