Betty Willis, the woman who designed the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, has died. She was 91.
Willis died at her home Sunday.
The 91-year-old artist’s often-copied sign sits in a median in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard south of the Strip.
The welcome sign’s design, which doesn’t have a copyright owner, has become a fixture on travel tchotchkes from Vegas and everywhere else, Kelly said. She has a T-shirt from San Francisco with that city’s name swapped in for Las Vegas in front of the sign’s recognizable shape, she said.
Willis, born in 1923 in the small town of Overton northeast of Las Vegas, worked as a commercial artist in Los Angeles before returning to Las Vegas, where she worked for sign companies and designed the famous diamond-shaped beacon of flashing lights.
The sign has become such a popular photo backdrop that a parking lot for cars and tour buses in the middle of the street was expanded in 2012.
Willis also designed neon signs for the Moulin Rouge casino and Blue Angel motel in Las Vegas.
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