Daphne Fey Vellani

DAPHNE FEY VELLANI 1926 – 2024 Daphne Fey (Hughes) Vellani, aged 98, passed away in her sleep on Friday, June 21, 2024, at her home in Bellevue, Nebraska USA. She was born on March 15, 1926, to John Lister Hughes and Amy Mildred (Parry) Hughes in London, England. Moving north as a young child to scenic Port Sunlight, Daphne developed her sporting talents playing tennis and running track in school. Life changed in Port Sunlight with the advent of WWII. Port Sunlight and surrounding areas were subject to enemy air raids, one of which she survived when her house was bombed. Life continued and she graduated from Birkenhead High School in 1943, then went on to earn her Froebel Foundation Teaching Certificate in 1946. From 1946 to 1951, she taught 1st through 3rd grade in Gerrards Cross, then New Ferry, England. Relocating to Canada in 1951 to join her older brother Gordon, for the next two years Daphne taught in Montreal, where she became a life-long hockey fan. Between the years 1953-1963, she taught public school based in Winnipeg, with a 1955-1957 spell with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Zweibrücken, Germany (enabling her to visit Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Monaco, and Switzerland), then a 1960-1961, stint teaching United States Air Force children in Taranto, Italy. In 1954 Daphne joined four of her workmates on a marathon summer road trip from Vancouver to Winnipeg via San Francisco, New Orleans, South Carolina, and Chicago. In 1955, Daphne was introduced by a mutual friend to her future husband, Italian Air Force officer Andrea “Andy” Vellani – whom Daphne unknowingly passed near to in Texas a year earlier – while he was on temporary duty in Canada. Andy returned to Italy soon after, but the duo kept in touch. Daphne would later visit him in Italy during her assignment in Germany. While on temporary duty in Huntsville, AL Andy took leave to wed Daphne in Winnipeg, Canada on 23 December 1959. Together they returned to Taranto, Italy to begin their married life together. Daphne’s first son Paul was born in 1961. Soon after, Andy retired from the Italian Air Force. The family of three moved back to Winnipeg, where Daphne resumed her Canadian teaching career. Alas, times were tough, so they emigrated to the United States eighteen months later in search of a better life. Once settled in then-safe & affordable Cudahy, CA, Daphne resumed teaching at private schools in 1964 – a highlight of which was having Marlon Brando’s son Devi in her Brentwood Academy class and subsequently meeting the actor. Daphne’s second son Sergio was born in 1968. By then, the family had moved on up to West Los Angeles. Following a halcyon three-year stay in Orange, CA neighboring lifelong friends they’d met in Cudahy, opportunity knocked again, so in the summer of 1971, Andy and Daphne moved their family to the Long Island town of Coram, NY. Facing unforeseen cost of living increases and NY teacher certification rules, in 1972 Daphne began her healthcare career, first as a nurse’s aide, then as an emergency room unit secretary. Long Island was good to her family in the ways that matter. Sorry to leave the friends she’d made in Coram, stagflation and runaway property taxes finally chased Andy and Daphne back to Southern California in 1979. Re-settling on the same street & block in West Los Angeles where they’d lived when Sergio was born, Daphne soon found work as a cardiac unit secretary/telemetry tech for St John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. In 1981 the family moved to Irvine, CA, and Daphne began a ten-year run as a psych unit secretary at West Anaheim Medical center. Retiring in 1991 six months before her son Sergio was married, Daphne moved into her & Andy’s new home in rural Aguanga, CA, overlooking Temecula Valley and Vail Lake. She taught preschool in nearby Hemet until June of 1992 when Andy joined her in retirement. Together they labored to make their five-acre patch of desert fruitful. During her long Aguanga residence, Daphne was blessed to become a grandmother twice, loving every minute with her granddaughters that life would allow. She also formed many lasting friendships and along the way and adopted a long line of dogs and cats. And briefly, a peacock. Blessed with vigor, she also indulged her love of travel, visiting England and Italy several times, along the way having the satisfaction of guiding both of her sons on tours of the town she grew up in. After a 22-year run in the desert countryside, old age plus Andy’s mesothelioma convinced Andy and Daphne that it was time to move closer to family. So in the fall of 2013, she and Andy left Aguanga, CA, for Bellevue, NE. In 2014 Andy and Daphne took one last European trip together. Daphne’s oldest son Paul joined the rest of the Vellanis in 2016 to share Andy’s final days. Widowed in February of 2017, Daphne remained a light of our family for a further seven years until her passing one week ago. Preceded in death by parents John & Amy, brothers Jack & Gordon, and husband Andy, Daphne is survived by her son Paul Vellani of Bellevue, NE; son Sergio Vellani and daughter in-law Kristine of Bellevue, NE; granddaughters Aime Vellani of Overland Park, KS and Andrea Vellani of Pearland, TX; nephew Robbie Hughes of California City, CA; niece Vanessa Linnell of St. Giles, Somerset, England . . . and friends young and old across the world. A Graveside Service will be held at 10:00 A.M., Friday, June 28, 2024, at Bellevue Cemetery in Bellevue with Pastor Steve Holdaway officiating. Per Daphne’s request the family suggests memorials to Boys town, Compassion International, Disabled American Veterans, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Services are entrusted to Roby Funeral Home, 346 Ave. A, Plattsmouth, NE 68048. (402) 296-3123 robyfuneralhome.com

Daphne Fey Vellani

March 15, 1926 - June 21, 2024