Elizabeth Ann Fayhee

Elizabeth Ann Fayhee, 71, a resident of Fort Myers, Florida, passed away peacefully in her sleep, Wednesday, August 19, 2026, in Fort Myers. She was born September 7, 1954, in Avon, Illinois, to Paul Fayhee and Elizabeth (Wasson) Fayhee, both now deceased.

Elizabeth grew up in Prairie City, Illinois, a small-town girl with a head full of ringlet curls and a penchant for entertaining, who was compared so often to Shirley Temple that the nickname all but stuck. She graduated from Bushnell-Prairie City High School and went on to earn her BA from Western Illinois University, after which she moved to Chicago to work in sales at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, book publishers. It was fitting work for a woman who read everything; poetry and literature (a proud veteran of Mrs. Estelene Bodenhamer’s College English Class) and was a master at the art of the sale.

She was not an easy woman, and she wouldn't have wanted to be remembered as one. She held her convictions the way she held everything; firmly, loudly, and without apology. Nobody who spent five minutes with her had to wonder where she stood. Her relationships were complicated, and she carried that complication with her. Those who loved her did so knowing the whole of her.

That penchant for entertaining and performance never left her. She could make a complete stranger laugh; standing in a line, sitting in a waiting room, she'd find the absurdity in whatever situation everyone was stuck in and hand it back to them as a joke. She loved to laugh, and she found it in Carol Burnett, The Golden Girls, in Bette Midler, and in Whoopi Goldberg; she rewatched Sister Act more times than anyone could count. Loud, funny, unbothered women were among her favorites, go figure. In her later years she spent many hours with her favorite movies, watching and rewatching them, and she developed a real fondness for old Westerns on television, especially anything with John Wayne in it.

Severe hearing loss shaped much of her life. Music had been one of her great joys, Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand among her favorites, and losing the ability to hear it was a grief she felt deeply and spoke about honestly. Rather than retreat, she became a fierce advocate, determined that hearing people understand what it costs to live in a world built for ears that work. She was persistent about it, the way she was persistent about everything that mattered to her. She was thrilled to have found her way to Herbert Silverstein, M.D., F.A.C.S., who was able to provide life altering improvement in her hearing with cochlear implants. Memorial contributions may be made in her name to the Ear Research Foundation, part of the Silverstein Institute in Sarasota, Florida at https://givebutter.com/SUPPORTERF

Elizabeth was preceded in death by her daughter, Mickhail "Mickey" Fayhee, whom she loved deeply; her brother, Dennis Fayhee; and her sister, Colleen Fayhee.

She is survived by her three sisters, Maureen Fayhee (Gary Herlache) of Nashville, Tennessee; Denise Zavitson (Russ) of Franklin, Tennessee; Lori Fayhee (Ronald Principato) of Estero, Florida; her sister-in-law, Elaine Fayhee; and by numerous nieces and nephews.

Cremation has taken place according to her wishes. Interment will follow at a later date at the Prairie City Cemetery in Prairie City, Illinois, with a private family gathering at graveside.

Mullins & Curtis Affordable Funerals and Cremations, Fort Myers, is entrusted with final care.