Terrible Herbst Oil family member, Dolly, dies

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 9:55 a.m.

In 1956 professional model Dolly Herbst answered a knock at the door of her mountaintop home in Hidden Hills, Calif., and met a cowboy who asked if he could show some friends the view of his sprawling ranch in the valley below.

Later that day, the cowboy, famed Western movie star Wild Bill Elliott, asked Dolly out for doughnuts and coffee. Despite his being 28 years older than Herbst, they soon found they had much in common -- for one thing, they were both born in Missouri -- and soon after they were married.

The couple moved to Las Vegas in 1961, where they co-hosted the "Wild Bill Elliott Show," running old Western movies on Saturday afternoons on local television. After Bill died on Nov. 26, 1965, Dolly carved out a new career as a public relations executive with the firm her father had founded, Terrible Herbst Oil Co.

Dolly Genevieve Herbst, who helped her family's 60-year-old service station/car wash company grow into a major business with more than 80 stations and 1,600 employees in Nevada, California and Arizona, died Sunday at her Las Vegas home. She was 68.

The cause, her family said, was emphysema. A cigarette smoker for 47 years, Herbst kicked the habit seven years ago.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 40 years will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at Christ Church Episcopal, of which she was a longtime member and an avid supporter of the church's Shade Tree shelter for abused women, her favorite charity.

"My mother would want to be remembered for her creativity, her kindness and her lovingness to her family, of which she was totally devoted," Debby Martin said.

Corky Elliott, Herbst's son, said Herbst was very proud of her work in local television and for the Terrible Herbst company, where she worked from 1976 until her death.

"She loved both the Las Vegas of yesteryear as well as the modern Las Vegas," Elliott said. "She was amazed at how the small desert town she once knew could grow so big in such a short time."

Born Oct. 1, 1932, in St. Louis, she was the elder of two children of Edward R. Herbst and the former Lorraine Lang. The family moved to Chicago, where Edward founded the Terrible Herbst Oil Co.

At age 16 Dolly graduated from Northwestern University with an associate's degree in art and music. She remained devoted to art throughout her life, specializing in fine China dolls that she made mostly for family members.

Dolly, who stood 5 feet 8 inches in her prime, moved to California and became a fashion model, working store runways as one of a group of models affectionately known as "The Gold Diggers." It was at that time she met her husband-to-be.

"When my mother met Wild Bill Elliott, she actually did not know who he was," Martin said. "He had to tell her about his accomplishments and explain to her that he was a famous movie star. She just didn't recognize him from the movies."

Between 1940 and '54, Elliott appeared in 96 films -- 16 of them as Red Ryder and eight of them with Gabby Hayes as his sidekick -- including "Lone Texas Ranger," "Across the Sierras" and "Bitter Creek." He was known for saying the line, "I'm a peaceable man, but ... " before beating up a bad guy.

Debby Martin said her mother's decision to move to Las Vegas after she married Elliott was based on her desire to be close to her father, mother and the rest of her family.

From 1961 until 1965, the couple co-hosted the Wild Bill Elliott Show. From 1965-67, she hosted the Dolly Elliott Show, which branched out from cowboy movies to other films.

Dolly later took back her family name and remained out of the spotlight throughout her years at the family business.

But her name but did pop up again in the early 1990s when Clark County filed an eminent domain lawsuit against her and others who refused to relinquish their homes on property where the MGM Grand hotel-casino and theme park was to be built.

The Herbst family home, built by her parents in 1957, fell victim to the bulldozers. The property today is a grassy area in front of the resort's parking lot.

In September 1995, the County Commission approved a $954,000 settlement to end the condemnation case of Herbst's 13,750-square-foot parcel on Tropicana Avenue between Las Vegas Boulevard and Koval Lane.

In addition to her son and daughter, both of Las Vegas, Herbst is survived by her brother, Jerry Herbst, of Las Vegas; and two grandchildren, Genevieve Martin and William Martin, both of Las Vegas.