December 17, 1929 – September 1, 2025

On Monday September 1st, Holly Wilson made her transition to a higher plane. She was born Joan Hollebaugh on the 17th of December 1929 at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco to Clifford and Emma Esther Hollebaugh of Pacific Heights. She acquired the name “Holly” because of her last name, to separate her from the other “Joans” in her school class.

After attending Lowell High School, she went on to attend Stephens College in Columbia, MO and then San Francisco State, where she received her AA and BA in Liberal Arts respectively.

In 1951, she moved to Sugar Bowl Ski Resort on Donner Pass and met Norm Wilson, during the epic winter of 1951-52, where she shared more adventures than she could have imagined. There they met two other couples, Peg and Ted Lewis, and Liz and Jean Legras, who would became her lifelong friends and chosen family.

Holly and Norm married in March of 1953, then ventured to Austria for Norm to study at the university in Innsbrook. They returned to Tahoe to work at Squaw Valley during the 1960 Winter Olympics. Norm built them a home in Tahoe City where they raised their two daughters. An avalanche consulting job in British Columbia took them to the town of Stewart for 14 months, where they dealt with oh so much rain, and the grizzly bears walking down the road.

After moving back to Tahoe, Holly began her career in Public Relations, working for local Tahoe City/North Shore Newspapers, a PR firm in Incline Village and for the National Ski Patrol Association.

Later, life circumstances took her to Arvada, Colorado, Leesburg, Virginia and finally to
Sparks, Nevada where she founded PFLAG of Northern Nevada and helped found The Circles Edge Spiritual Center in Reno. Because one of her daughters is a United Airlines Captain, Holly was able to take advantage of family benefits that took her traveling worldwide, namely Australia (including celebrating her 80th birthday in Tasmania), the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria (again), Shanghai and Beijing, China, where she got to walk on the Great Wall.

She is known for her abundant love of people, her San Francisco Giants, her positive nature, her contributions to her spiritual family, PFLAG and the elder communities where she spent her last years, bringing light and love to all she touched.

She is survived by daughters Robie Wilson Litchfield of Hailey, Idaho, and Cari Chresten Wilson of South Lake Tahoe, California.

Holly will be remembered for her ready smile, giving nature and loving heart.
A private Celebration of Life with close friends and family will be held at a date and location to be determined. If you would like to honor Holly’s memory, please remember her with a contribution to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, or the Nevada Humane Society