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Betty Willis
American graphic designer

Betty Willis

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
American graphic designer
Work field
Gender
Female
Place of birth
Overton
Age
91 years
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Betty Jane Willis (née Whitehead; May 20, 1923 – April 19, 2015) was an American visual artist and graphic designer. Born in Overton, Nevada, she is best known for having been the designer of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, and has been attributed to being an influencer in defining modern Las Vegas' visual image.

Biography

Willis born on May 20, 1923 in Overton, Nevada, the daughter of Stephen R. Whitehead, the first assessor of Clark County, Nevada, and homemaker Gertrude Meader. She went to Los Angeles in 1942 where she attended art school and drew ads for Fox West Coast Theaters. Betty returned to Las Vegas where she first took a job at the courthouse, then worked as a commercial artist before moving on to designing neon signs at Western Neon. It was there that she designed her signature piece, the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, completed in 1959. Willis never trademarked the design, later saying "It's my gift to the city."

Willis is also known for designing the signs for the Moulin Rouge Hotel and the Blue Angel Motel. She continued designing signs until she retired at the age of 77. She died at the age of 91 at her home in Overton in 2015.

Signs designed

  • Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
  • Moulin Rouge Hotel
  • Buxom Motel Blue Angel sign
  • Stardust Casino
  • City Center Motel
  • Bow and Arrow Motel
  • Del Mar Motel
  • Riviera pylon
  • ^
  • "Home". Moulin Rouge Museum & Cultural Center. Retrieved 2010-03-28. 

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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