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January 28, 2008

Lives: Nina Vickers

Amanda McGregor

Editor's note: Everyone's life has a story. In "Lives," we'll be telling some of those stories about North Shore people who have died recently. "Lives" will run Mondays in The Salem News.

SALEM -- Perhaps you saw Nina Vickers playing the harp at Crosby's Market or at the Hawthorne Hotel, dressed in a lobster costume, or as an octopus, or maybe in a velvet medieval gown, all outfits she sewed herself.

"She possessed such confidence and dignity sitting in the deli department of a local supermarket dressed as Queen Anne or a Sea Horse and playing the harp," recalled her friend Margaret Press, a writer from Salem.

Nina also rode a motorcycle that she adorned with gold filigree, took up competitive figure skating as an adult, and planted flowers around Salem. In fact, there isn't much she didn't do.

During her lifetime, Nina practiced law, worked in real estate, spoke many languages including Mandarin Chinese, taught the harp, got her Coast Guard captain's license, traveled the world, painted, danced with her husband, learned to sing and published a book.

She died of cancer on Thursday at her home. She was 65.

"She was sort of a woman for all seasons," her husband, Russ Vickers, said yesterday in their oceanside home in the Salem Willows. "She touched a lot of people, and people just fell in love with her."

Russ and Nina Vickers moved to Salem in 1993 from New York City after they bought the Hawthorne Cove Marina, and Nina quickly became a Salem fixture.

Among Nina's notable traits was her habit of naming everything, from her ficus tree, Rufus, to her principal harp, Regina. She even named a seagull, Tupper, who visited her bedroom balcony daily for morsels of cat food. Nina usually took three walks a day, and when she did, Tupper would circle overhead, Press recalled.

"She knew every dog in the Willows by name," said Press.

Nina had more friends -- and plants -- than her husband could keep track of, and she had a deep respect for all living things.

One time, Nina saw the staff at the Hawthorne Hotel pulling out the flowers in the window box to replace with new ones. She was aghast. She recruited volunteers to help save the flowers, something she would continue to do thereafter.

Nina survived a serious bout with breast cancer and radical mastectomy in her early 30s, and committed herself to healthy living that included a caffeine-free, herbal regimen with acupuncture, massage, a strict diet and exercise.

"She really studied Chinese herbal medicine," said friend Juli Lederhaus, general manager of the Hawthorne Hotel. "We would go to Chinatown, and she would speak to people in Chinese."

Lederhaus said Nina struck a remarkable balance of liberated woman and devoted wife to Russ, whom she called "the king."

"Especially for women in my generation, we grew up either being told to be feminists or stuck in the past and housewives -- and we couldn't be both," said Lederhaus. "She was absolutely a living, breathing example that you could be both and do it in a very honorable way. She never gave up anything to be a very wonderful wife."

Nina learned to play the harp in her 40s, according to her husband, and played for dinner parties, galas and boat shows -- but no matter the size of the crowd, she was always in her element.

"She was a real entertainer -- a showman," said Russ Vickers.

As she was dying, Nina was working on a penguin costume to wear while playing harp for an upcoming gig at the New England Boat Show in Boston.

"I saw her about a week ago, and she was sewing a black, synthetic fur outfit," said Press. "She said she had received rather disheartening news from her doctors and said to herself, 'You can go home and plan your funeral, or you can finish your penguin outfit.'"

"You hear about people who are inspirations to other people," said Lederhaus, "but Nina was."

A memorial service will be held for Nina Vickers on Thursday at the Hawthorne Hotel from 4 to 8 p.m., with a 5 p.m. service presided over by the Rev. Michael Duda, pastor of First Church in Wenham.

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