Obituary of Ellabeth Ann Hickling

HICKLING, Ellabeth Ann Our Mom, Ellabeth Ann Hickling, ne Detter, passed away May 6th, 2012 at the age of 93. She was born in Casper, Wyoming, to Earl and Ruth Detter. She had a wonderful and full life as is attested to by a dear friend in an email we received upon our notice of Mom's passing to him. Quoting Ken, “She was a remarkable lady. I felt privileged to sit in her shadow and carry the tennis rackets for her in Point Fortin, Trinidad(Mom was quite a tennis player). I was delighted to meet up with her again in Zulia, Venezuela and later visited her at her New England farm. Later, I found out when I was technical manager for Shell in Balikpapan, Borneo that as a six year old she had lived in Sangasanga, Borneo at a small oil field nearby. As I noted, she was truly a remarkable lady in every way. I miss her.” Mom graduated from Ventura High School and attended Stanford University studying journalism. While home for the holidays visiting her folks in Trinidad after her second year, she met our Dad Leslie Hickling. They were married in May 1939. There, in Trinidad, the first two of her three children, Jill and Jim were born. During the middle of the war she, while carrying our sister, had to return with us kids to Ventura, California to care for her mother. There, her youngest child Ruth was born in 1943. She returned to Trinidad and her husband with the three children and remained there to the end of the war. After the war we went to England, than back to the States, then back to Venezuela, all the time Dad worked for Shell. Planning for retirement, Mom and Dad tried dairy farming in western Massachusetts from 1951 -1958. In fact Mom and we kids ran the farm alone while Dad was still working in Venezuela. Mom and we saw Dad on the long leaves and at Christmas time. It was supposed to be their retirement project by having a farm all up and running when Dad retired, but as it turned out, none of their kids (we) liked farming in the least. They sold the farm and Mom rejoined Dad in Venezuela where he still worked for Shell. They retired in 1962 to Santa Barbara County and built a beautiful, modern home of our dad's design off of Old San Marcos Road. Mom really enjoyed working at UCSB in the library and retired in 1978. After they were both retired, she and dad traveled the world on vacations, visiting friends eve rywhe r e on three cont inents , and making sur e they saw the i r globetrotting kids in every assignment at least twice. No address in the world was too far for them to go! Mom also greatly enjoyed weekly bridge with her friends at Sandpiper Mobile Village and with her partner Jim at the Santa Barbara Bridge Center. Mom is survived by two children, 6 grandchildren, and 5 great grand children. We all will miss our “Nonnie”, her bottomless love, insightful guidance, and indomitable spirit. She has been an integral part of all our lives and will surely be missed. The family expresses its heartfelt appreciation for the kindness and professional attention given to our Mom by the personnel at Cottage Hospital and Mission Terrace Convalescent Hospital these past few months. We especially thank the very kind people at her residence, Cliff View Terrace, who attended to her with such thoughtful and personal care. Finally, we cannot thank her physician, Dr. J. Frawley enough for his dedicated care provided to our mom. He was always there for her, regardless of the hour or day and will always be in our prayers. Any donations of remembrance should be forwarded to McDermott-Crockett Mortuary for the benefit of the Santa Barbara Visiting Nurses